Awakened
by CallingNightSky
Summary: Takes place after/around chapter 74. Yuuki realizes what needs to be done and comes to terms with her heart- however, some things in life are unexpected. Is there a way out of the dark forest, or are the branches too thick for their paths? Dark. Lemony. *On brief hiatus!*
1. Chrysalis

Yuuki Kuran breathed a long sigh of relief as the Japan sun sank to its knees. She had awaited this moment ever since she had returned to Cross Academy, her old school and former home. But the times were more confusing now, and the situation her brother had left her in had begun to sink in harder every morning she woke. Daily life had become a struggle for the young vampire. No matter where she found herself, something was always expected of her, people were always around her, and she was growing weary of charades.

_"Only a year ago I was a carefree girl, full of laughter and silly dreams._

_It seems so long ago now..."_

Yuuki gazed at herself in the mirror and brushed the hair out of her scarlet eyes. It had been a long time since she had really studied her appearance. In just a little over a year, she had somehow blossomed into a fully mature young woman. She ran her hands over the curves of her hips, slowly and softly, like a man would stroke his beautiful lover. She let them wander up her body, along her waist and up to her breasts, which swelled through her silk nightgown and perked from the touch. Her mouth hung open slightly as she ran her fingers through her long hair, noticing the way it curled at the ends like vines of ivy. She was a beautiful woman, and yet when she stepped back to take it all in, she caught a glimpse of something wild. Something fierce and full of fury, like a tiger that wanted to leap from her soul and take over the vessel it had been trapped beneath. Her fists clenched at her sides and she quickly turned away from her reflection.

_"Sometimes I still can't believe I'm...a vampire."_

Images flashed through her mind at lightning speed, memories and thoughts and faces from every course of her life. Her mother's loving eyes, her father's laughter, a blood-stained winter night...

Kaname_..._

_Zero..._

Her eyes began to tear and her heart raced as she almost fell outside and onto the balcony. She gave a small gasp as the cool night air hit her face and her heart rate instantly slowed. She sunk down the banister on which she'd been supporting her weight and laid her forehead on the cold marble floor. She lay there for a long time, gazing at the starlit sky and all it arresting beauty, until she felt warm liquid on her face. She hadn't even realized she'd been crying.

_"What am I doing?"_

Suddenly , as if a light switch had been turned on, Yuuki Kuran came to her senses. Sitting up, she craned her head back and took a deep breath. One breath after another until finally all the pressure from within her mind began to slowly melt away. Ever since that night her brother had revealed she was a vampire, had revealed her to herself, she had been having trouble accepting her past, as well as the present.

_"Was it all a lie..?"_ She'd thought. _"Was my whole human life up until now just a mirror image of what I really am? Was it even real?"_

But no... now she could see the truth. It was such a smooth and clear truth that it was like glass in her mind and it rang through every doubt she'd held up until now. She was Yuuki Kuran. A pureblood vampire who was born so and her entire life had been a blessing from above. With her parents' dying gift she was able to grow in an environment where she could live a normal life. Where she could be happy and free of the horrible weight of Vampire. She had become the person she was now because of that gift, and she saw that now better than ever.

Wiping the tears from her porcelain face, she picked herself from the floor and stood fully erect. She drew her head back slightly and breathed in the night, letting the breeze caress her. Remembering what she'd set out to do, she drew in a deep breath.

_"All this time I've just been a caterpillar, wrapped in my warm chrysalis..."_

With a shaking foot she raised one leg up onto the banister, and then the other, steadying herself until she was standing upright on the balcony's edge. She stretched her arms away from her body and cleared her mind of all conscious thought.

_"Ever since then I've been waiting... "_

From where she stood she could see for an eternity, miles of lush forests and distant mountainsides, stretching across the horizon in their quiet beauty.

_"...waiting to transform into a beautiful butterfly."_

And with that thought, Yuuki Kuran jumped from the fourth-story balcony and disappeared into the darkness.


	2. Figment

Zero Kiryuu stood alone in his room, gazing at the full moon through silver curtains. Many times in his life he could remember doing the very same thing, observing the way the darkness would come and dominate the day's ethereal light. He looked back on the day's events with an almost agonizing scrutiny, every word that was said, every look and touch. He grabbed at his throat unconsciously and ran the tips of his fingers over the branding on his neck.

"_So close.. she was so close to me...I could smell every pump of her heart._

_She drank from me..."_

His mind flashed back to the moment. He could hear both their hearts beating as she had pulled in closer. _Thump, thump, thump, thump. _His insides had withered and dried like the desert sand, his thirst almost unbearable as she'd licked his neck, softly...slowly...

His breath hitched in his throat and Zero was drawn back to the present. He was now standing in front of his bed, leaning and bracing himself off the wooden frame. His own heart was racing and tightening inside his chest cavity. He remembered what she had seen, what they both had seen as she had drunk from him and took in his life essence. She had seen into a piece of him that even he refused to acknowledge. It infuriated him. How dare she? How _dare_ she look into his heart, the concubine that had eaten his Yuuki alive? The only person, the only thing he'd ever cherished since the death of his family. Her young, smiling face flashed through his memory as he burst apart. Zero roared and slammed his fist repeatedly into the wall, throwing his weight against it and with a sickening _crunch _breaking both the wall and his knuckles. His vision went white and all through his ears was a loud ringing. He suddenly felt as though he was outside of his own body, watching him watching the long strands of blood, streaking down the wall like rain on a windowsill. He gazed down at his knuckles, seeing them raw and bleeding he knelt over and licked them clean, the taste of his own blood sickening but just satisfying enough to keep him going. Once it was over, and the pain had subsided, he let his body fall limp as he lay on the floor. He wanted her so bad. He needed her so badly he could almost feel her now, her soft skin, her curtain of hair over his face, leaning down and kissing him. He could taste and smell her as he imagined himself drinking from her, both memory and fantasy combining to put Zero in total ecstasy. He moaned and shifted. Finally allowing himself, he closed his eyes slowly and immersed himself in fantasy. Her body was over him, her mouth hung open as she ran her hands over his stomach. Her dress was off, her soft breasts in his hands and he moaned even louder. He could feel her, Yuuki, he breathed her name...

_"Yuuki..."_

He imagined himself plunging into her, he could hear her moaning his name back to him. His name, it sounded rich as the finest gold coming from her lips as she watched him enter her. A few moments of slow movements gave way to a furious frenzy. Squeezing his eyes shut he busied himself to the rhythm of the fantasy and imagined a most glorious climax. He imprinted the image onto his brain and then suddenly it was gone. Now hot, sweaty, and with tired and bleeding hands, Zero Kiryuu laid in shame and guilt. He cursed himself for imagining the new Yuuki, and not his sweet and former love. He pictured young Yuuki in his mind, trying desperately to pry her image away from a large black dog and a vision of death.

That night Zero scrubbed his body raw and lay in his bed, dreaming of a day when his mind would fall blank and his heart would never again feel the sting of Yuuki Kuran.

...-...

_Author's Comments*_

_**I know this was a pretty short chapter, but in the next one I plan on going deeper into the plot , and I didn't want to cut it off anywhere in the middle. Hope you like and please be honest with reviews! This is my first FF and I would appreciate any comments you have :)_


	3. Resolve

_"Years of love can be forgot, in the hatred of a minute."_

_- __Edgar Allen Poe_

...-...

A quiet wind blew through the air softly, as if it were afraid of disturbing the calm night's composure. The stars in the sky were burning as the moon itself seemed to grin down upon a pale young woman, stretching her limbs out like a blooming flower. Yuuki Kuran was this flower, this fragile being whose very heart thrummed like a violin. She stepped up onto the balcony railing with inhuman grace, lifting herself from the floor with only the ball of her right foot. She took a deep breath and tried to draw her mind in, deep into herself so that she was nothing but air. She pictured herself floating there, a ball of weightless light hovering above the balcony, rising higher and higher until she reached Heaven. This feeling overcame her, and she knew now was the time.

Fear spoke in the depths of Yuuki's mind, trying desperately to push away the high that was coursing through her veins, but to no avail. Yuuki had her mind set, and she was determined to be strong. Her heart could take no more of this weakness.

_"This is what you wanted, Kaname. You wanted me to jump..."_

A pair of scarlet eyes flashed through her mind as she leaped from the balcony's edge. With arms outstretched and body straight, Yuuki looked like a martyr leaping to his death. A self-sacrifice, for the sake of all that is just and righteous, atoning for the sins of the world. Her hair whipped wildly as the wind dragged her down, pulling harder every moment. She felt her body, weightless and free, and her heart burst open then. She screamed, not in fear but in ecstasy, because for the first time in years she felt she was doing something right. The _only_ thing she could do, was stretch her wings and fly.

She concentrated hard then, still screaming as she squeezed her eyelids tighter. She tried to focus on her body, telling it to obey her command. She fought to unleash the pureblood wiles that had caused her all this pain. Yet she only spiraled down, down toward the Earth and its physical laws.

_"No! No! Not now!"_ she thought as she sensed her time was out. Even her vampire senses could not drag the moments out any longer and she screamed even louder, this time from fear. She heard someone whimper in pain just before a white light came and took everything away.

And the night fell silent.

...-...

Kaien Cross did not think of himself as a righteous man, nor did he find he was morally or intellectually superior to others. What he did believe was that fate had given him a path, and that path was his only hope at redemption. He had not lived a peaceful life, instead it had been filled with hatred and violence. Since he was a child he had been pushed into a hidden world where people were divided amongst each other, where some were forced to live in darkness. Being born with vampire senses, he had stood alone amongst his classmates. He was strange and alien to all who knew of him, and had spent much of his childhood alone. Then came his adolescence, trained as a vampire hunter in the name of his ancestors before him, and the silent scars that had marked him were many.

As the years passed by, memories of bloodshed and lurid silences were all that he'd had. Yet one woman had changed it all for him, on woman alone had shown him compassion and eyes that were void of judgement, and ever since that moment his heart had overflown with unexpected love. That very same year he had hung his sword, for fear that this new hope would be lost again to it's burning, metallic soul. He had grown old in his years, for he had lived longer than most, and he knew that his time would soon fall short and he would either be saved or damned to an eternity of suffering.

He could only hope for the best now.

As Kaien walked through the quiet night, musing on his past, a scent came to him in the gentle breeze. Soft at first, and then suddenly it exploded into his senses. There was no mistaking the smell, and he knew it was about time anyway.

_"Kuran..."_

Instincts taking over, he burst into action. Like a lioness on her prey, Kaien Cross galloped into the clearing, feeling his muscles tingle from a mixture of fear and anticipation.

_"I must do what is necessary. I am sorry, Kaname."_

...-...

_(**I'll also show you a sweet dream... next night **)_


	4. Failure

The smell of blood was overwhelming, so deeply overpowering that Yuuki Kuran felt her throat tighten with need. Feeling a bloodlust stronger than ever before she struggled to open her eyes, only to find that she could not. Panic tingled in her spine. _Where was she?_ The smells and sounds around her were not at all familiar. She heard footsteps, quietly padding around her from what sounded like only a few feet away. She could sense a presence unknown to her and her uneasiness grew. Tensing the muscles she had been training for almost a year, she thrashed her body only to find herself immobilized. Her arms and legs were strapped to the bed underneath her. She screamed, only to hear what resembled a low and terrified whine, like a wounded animal. She thrashed wildly until a pair of powerful arms grabbed her by the waist, subduing her efforts.

"Listen young lady," the voice said, "I don't know how you got outta here last night, but I can assure you that, under my watch, you won't be moving from this bed. We have an understanding_?" _

_"Last night?"_ Yuuki thought. "_What is he talking about? Where am I? How long have I been here?" _She racked her mind trying to remember what it was she had been doing last. And then it hit her. Visions of a starry night, a whistling wind and...unforgiving ground. Yuuki gave a long sigh and her head fell back, aggravated. She was stuck in this now and she was going to have to explain herself. Somehow.

_"_Are you are my doctor, _senpai_? Am I in a hospital? " Yuuki asked softly. She could tell from the way her mouth was limp and her head was swimming that they had given her some sort of numbing drug. She could also feel a dull pain in the back of her head, throbbing very subtly behind the mask of morphine, waiting to pounce. It was proof she had been injured.

"No, your doctor is only here during business hours. You can just call me Hank. I keep the room clean."

"Why is he not here? If I am his patient then I must speak with him now. I need to get home as soon as possible."

She heard the man snicker rudely and felt a brief moment of anger. It dissipated with one deep breath and she asked again.

"Where is my doctor? Where am I?"

"You are at the Itami Rehabilitation Clinic in Sendai, Japan. Your doctor is not here because it is 3 am. And honey, let me assure you, you're not leaving here for a long time."

Yuuki took a long moment to register the information he was telling her. Fighting the overwhelming urge to scream, she spoke again.

"Rehabilitation?"

"You jumped from a fourth-story balcony. It's a miracle that you're alive, let alone in one piece. From what I heard you were a broken, bloody mess in the E.R. and hear you are, fucking back together. Never seen a damn thing like it. The doctors didn't know what to make of it."

Yuuki was still as the man continued on, chuckling occasionally in his strange accent as if he were enjoying the story. She had been able to open her heavy eyes just enough to see his silhouette, short and round and with the grace of a hippopotamus. As she watched him lean casually against the wall, she attempted to squeeze her wrists through the leather restraints, inch by inch.

"Yea, I heard you were a real mess, skull busted apart and everything. The doctors said you were going to die and they left you alone for the night, saying prayers and such. Then they come back in the morning and it's like you'd been replaced by a Barbie doll. The nurses were running around cryin' about miracles all afternoon."

The man let out a small sigh and Yuuki watched him open the window next to her bedside. He lit a cigarette and sat on the edge.

"Are you allowed to smoke in patient's rooms?" Yuuki asked, loathing the man already.

"I don't see how a cigarette will kill ya, sweetheart, when you've got superpowers like yourself."

"Who brought me here?"

She watched Hank's head turn towards her and he ashed his cigarette.

"Some young college girl, with really long hair and a doll-face. Looked like a goddess in real life. She said she didn't know you. Was just passin' by when she found you stuck to the cement."

Yuuki had a sinking feeling she had seen a goddess before herself. She wriggled harder.

"Since when is it customary to tie your patients down?" she demanded. "What kind of hospital is this? If I'm as recovered as you say I am, then I want to leave this place first thing in the morning!"

Hank gave a chuckle. "Suicide attempts will buy you at least a month's vacation here. In your case, I wouldn't even be so hasty."

Yuuki felt her heart begin to race. _Suicide?_ So that's what they thought. Of course. What else could it mean to a human? Deep inside, her heart gave a lurch. She'd failed...

Mustering up her vampire strength, she forced her eyes to fully see her surroundings. She was in a dimly lit room with gray walls all around. No television, no pictures, one barred window. This was no hospital, it was a prison.

"I suppose there's no chance you'll help me out of here? I didn't jump off that balcony, I fell. This is all a mistake. Please call the doctor now."

Suddenly, Hank stood up. He flicked his cigarette between the window bars and came over to her bedside, looking down at her for a long moment. Then without warning, he leaned over her and touched her hair. He picked up a long strand and ran his pale, grubby fingers over the length.

"I'll tell you what," he whispered, so close she could feel his breath on her ear, "I'll give him a call, if you do something for me. You're going to need a friend in this place, anyway."

Hank drew even closer then, so close she could smell the smoke on his breath, so close she could hear the beating of his heart. He smiled as he crawled on top of her, pressing his hands at her sides. Her heart raced, her muscles tensed, and her throat felt like sand. Both body and mind would have no more.

Deep into the night, a cruel man screamed. In the moon's silhouette, a young woman bursts free from her shackles and devours her prey.


	5. Slain

The northern wind picked up fiercely as Kaien Cross ran across the courtyard. Like a wolf in the wilderness, he had picked up the scent of Kaname Kuran from almost three miles away. However, Cross knew that a distance like that would only take the pureblood a matter of seconds. He found he could not control the rush of adrenaline as he raced towards the gates of Cross Academy.

His energy was short-lived, however, as he suddenly found himself facing an attractive young man, whose face was contorted with an unreadable emotion.

"Aido-kun... what is it?"

The blond vampire raised his eyes slowly, almost nervously, as he met the Headmaster's gaze. Thrown off by his demeanor of both pride and modesty, Cross had always had mixed feelings towards the young man up until recently, where he had observed his devotion for Yuuki. But now, as Kaien saw the light of fear in Aido's eyes, he knew instantly that something was wrong.

"Yuuki is... missing."

The headmaster simply stared at him, causing Hanabusa Aido to shift nervously on his feet.

"I've searched the entire school," he continued. "No one has seen her."

"Damnit!" Kaien shouted, turning his head around just in time to miss the vampire's shocked reaction. "She has gone to find Kaname. We must find her this instant!"

Kaien loved his adopted daughter fiercely, as though she was his own. He knew that whatever it was Kaname was planning, he absolutely could not let Yuuki interfere at this point in time. She would only end up hurt and confuse d, at a time when focusing on her own destiny was most important. He assumed Kuran must have felt the same, since he had left her.

"Yes..." said Aido carefully, afraid to further rouse the over-protective father figure. "I also smelled Kaname near here. But his scent has gone now, almost as if..."

Further panic bubbled in Kaien Cross's stomach as Aido's sentence trailed off. Had Yuuki ran off with him? Had he come to quietly take her? Where was Kuran headed? Why would he allow her to stay by his side after all that had taken place?

"Headmaster..." said Aido, interrupting Kaien's rising panic. "He wouldn't have taken her with him. You know that as well as I. Otherwise, why would he have...?"

Kaien looked up in time to see a small tear run down the young vampire's face, and felt a pang of sympathy as he watched him angrily swipe it away. But also, he felt relief, knowing that Aido was right. Yuuki could not be with Kuran now, after all that had happened. But then... where?

"Aido," barked Cross, "bring Kiryuu to me immediately. After that, have Shiki and young Ms. Rima to arrange a search party. I want this entire area checked twice. Do this now."

"Yes, headmaster." he said quickly. Then, like a soldier falling in line, Kaien watched as Aido raised up his shoulders and disappeared towards the school.

Standing alone in the night's silence, Kaien focused his senses. It was true what Aido had said, Kaname Kuran had gone, as though something had caused him to change direction. Cross knew in his heart that he had gone to find Yuuki, and that could only mean she was not here.

_"Yuuki", _he thought,_ "what are you doing?"_

_Two nights before..._

The stars shine brightly through the foliage, lighting a trail through the otherwise dark wood. A beautiful woman walks through the trees, golden hair floating behind her as though it had life of its own. Something was laying in the clearing, sprawled in the moonlight like a slain unicorn, white and pure as untouched snow. As the woman comes closer, she smiles upon the bittersweet scene. The smell of fresh blood wafting through her senses, she breaks into a run. Stalking like a tigress on her prey, she bends down on her knees and crawls towards the body of a pale young woman.

"Why, _princess_, what has gotten you into this lovely predicament?" She whispers softly as she slides her fingers through the young girl's hair. The woman gives a low growl and runs her tongue around a trail of blood that is leaking from her ear. After a few minutes of this, she lifts her head and further examines the scene. Yuuki Kuran lay sprawled on the ground, at least two miles from the school. A bloody mess, she would have looked dead and gone to the common passerby, but the beautiful woman knows better. She chuckles softly in delight until she notices something strange. On Yuuki's back were two long wounds, bleeding gently as though she had been sliced open by a very sharp knife. The woman runs her doll-like hands over them.

"How.. curious.." she whispers.

After a long process of thought, the beautiful woman lifts up the body and takes it in her arms. With incredible strength, she positions her on her shoulder as though she were only an infant. With one last chuckle, she and the girl are gone.

_Present..._

There was blood everywhere as Yuuki Kuran wept silently on the cold hospital floor. It painted the walls and covered the bed sheets as though it had exploded from its source. Her body shook violently as she dared to scoot closer.

_"Oh no. Wh...what did I...?"_

Her overwhelming hunger had been satiated, but at a horrible cost. The man who had tried to attack her lay limp on the floor, blood trickling slowly from the wounds on his neck. His breathing came harsh and ragged, and even from across the floor she could hear the sound of his heart growing weaker. She wept harder.

_"I couldn't have done this."_ she thought, watching the blood run across the floor. _"What kind of a monster would do this...?"_

And then the memory came before her, unforgiving and with the power of a thousand men.

_'Are you lost, little girl?'_

_Snow... snow that was supposed to be white_.

_'If that's the case, then can I drink your blood?'_

An animal-like scream came wailing from Yuuki's mouth as she grasped at her hair.

"NO! STOP IT! I'M NOT LIKE HIM! I'M NOT..."

*CRACKK!*

Yuuki whipped around just in time to watch the small window shatter beside her. Time seemed to slow down as the glinting little pieces fell like rain onto the floor.

_"Wh...what are you?"_

The man Yuuki had bitten was looking at her. His eyes were full of pain and sadness as Yuuki listened to the sound of his heart growing slower with every breath.

"I'm...sorry." she said as she wept harder. She didn't know how to answer his question. What difference would it make now? Without thinking, she moved closer to him.

Reaching her hand out, she knelt over him and rested it on his chest. He struggled and moaned in a fearful attempt to flee from her, but to no avail. Yuuki studied him. His eyes, which were regarding her with a strange emotion, were the bluest she had ever seen. She immersed herself in them, imagining that somewhere inside them lay memories, hopes, and lost childhood dreams. She thought that, even though he had tried to brutally rape her, that somewhere inside of him was a good man, a good man who did not deserve to die like this.

She moved closer and knelt over him. She rested her head on his chest and held him in her arms like a child. Sensing that he was near death, he stopped struggling and began to weep. Yuuki had never seen a man cry before, and for some reason she thought of Zero. Her heart clenched in pain and she grasped at his chest. She screamed.

"Oh God... I'm so sorry! I'm sorry! Hank...!"

Yuuki began to cry again, but this time the tears came from the depths of her soul. Her pain was like a spirit, melting through her with unstoppable, invisible force. It was like an energy coursing through her veins, pumping in her heart and through her fingertips. She lost control of everything and her mind hummed with sorrow. She felt like she was burning. Her hands were burning. ..

Suddenly, she heard the sound of Hank's heart beating faster. Startled, she looked down and saw color flood his face. His lungs took in a breathful of air and she heard him gasp. Yuuki gasped too. Only a moment ago he had been an inch from death, and yet now, as he wrenched himself from her arms, it was as though...

"Up to room 402! We heard screaming. It's her again!" shouted a distant voice.

"Help!" Hank yelled to them through the walls. "Help me, please!" 

The sound of yelling and rapid footsteps rang through Yuuki's ears, and she realized she only had moments until their source would come bursting through the door. Without thinking, she ran to the window she had previously shattered and tried to pry the iron bars from its frame, but even she was not strong enough. Yuuki panicked hard. It was her only way out, and the voices were right outside ...

In just one moment's time, several things happened that no one who witnessed them were ever able to explain. The outside wall seemed to have exploded on its own accord, sending bricks and debris soaring into the night. Through a chorus of screaming a young girl lifted herself from the tile and leaped from the fifth-story floor, though her body was never found. Those who were there could have sworn they had seen the patient from 402 sprout wings and fly into the distance. But of course, that was just crazy.


	6. Flight

_"So no longer will I_  
><em>lay down, play dead.<em>  
><em>Play your doe in the headlights,<em>

_locked down and terrified._  
><em>Your deer in the headlights<em>  
><em>Shut down and horrified.<em>

_When push comes to pull,_

_comes to shove, comes to step around_

_this self-destructive dance_  
><em>That never would've ended 'til I<em>

_rose._  
><em>I roared aloud here<em>  
><em>I will... I am."<em>

_-A Perfect Circle, "Rose"_

_...-..._

_"Well...?"_

Kaien Cross regarded the young man in front of him with a weary expression. Zero Kiryuu was impatient, aggressive, and always quick to form an opinion. Yet having raised him from a young boy, Kaien knew how to keep him attentive, and that was with careful steps. He watched the boy silently for another moment, deep in his own thoughts.

"Are you going to tell me why you called me to your study?" Zero asked, barely hiding his scowl. "I have things I need to be doing at the moment."

Kaien snapped awake and made a disapproving face. He knew very well what those things were.

"Do these tasks of yours have anything to do with Kaname Kuran?"

This time Zero made no attempt to hide his gnashed teeth. His body grew tense and every sinewy muscle was called to attention. Yet there was something that sat in his lavender eyes that seemed almost desperate. To Kaien Cross, he looked like a starving beast at the slaughter, torn between his instincts to kill and the need to run for his life. He allowed himself to register a quick pang of guilt, though there was not time for such things.

"I said nothing about Kuran," Zero told him quietly. "Although he was near here not too long ago."

"Yes, I am aware of that." said Kaien. "Several of our night class students have already informed me of his proximity to the school. However, it seems he has gone before he ever reached his destination."

Once again, Kaien watched as Zero's face contorted with emotion, unreadable as though he were forcing it back down his throat.

"Did he come for her?"

"Well .." Kaien said thoughtfully. "Considering the circumstances, I will have to say no. You should know as well as I that Kuran always acts on meaning, and coming for Yuuki would have been an empty fruit for him. However, this brings me back to why I originally called you here."

Kaien paused, almost as if to build suspense. However, his intentions were to observe Zero's reactions.

"Go on..." mumbled Zero.

"Well," Kaien said lightly. "It seems as though Yuuki has been missing from the area for quite some time. I was wondering if you'd seen her."

There was a long silence as both men regarded each other, but Zero was the first to speak.

"So...you're telling me that Kuran was here, Yuuki is not, and yet you believe the two things are completely unrelated?"

"Yes." Kaien said simply.

Without warning, Zero grabbed the headmaster by his collar and, with startling strength, threw the thin man up against the wall. Kaien made no attempt to struggle or fight back, even as the young man's eyes burned a deep, scarlet red.

"HOW?" Zero screamed, his hands tightening dangerously close to the man's collarbone. "_How_ can you say things so casually? Do you have any idea what this means for us? For ALL of us!?"

Kaien Cross said nothing, and for a long moment each of them wondered what the other would do. Their breathing was a ragged chorus as both men locked into a steady gaze. Kaien watched Zero, unmoving, waiting for the moment when he would come back to reality, when his mind would allow his heart to think freely. The torment in Zero's eyes grew like a flame being lit, slowly and blazing and only a moment later, he let go. Kaien landed gracefully and brushed himself off as though he'd only just been for a light jog. He looked at Zero, who was already on the opposite end of the room, head buried in his shaking hands.

"Did you think that you would kill me?" Kaien asked him softly.

"Please..." Zero whispered, his voice faltering. "Just get away from me. Get _me_ away from here...anywhere..."

There was a soft yelping sound as the boy suddenly crumpled onto the floor. His body shook in silence as a clock ticked rhythmically beside him. Kaien's heart flooded with pain and emotion, this had went on for long enough.

He walked towards the quivering form and knelt down beside him, letting his hand come to rest on his silver hair.

_"Zero..."_

Minutes turned to hours and for a long time the two men stayed in place. Many things were said, yet no words were exchanged.. none of comfort or solace, because both knew that words were not necessary in matters of the heart.

...-...

Some things were never meant to be understood. This was a philosophy Yuuki Kuran had come to terms with over the years. One could not, for example, ever know what lie in the depths of another's heart; like a daughter would never truly know the trials of her mother, or a son the pain and labor of his father. Just like humanity, both men and vampire, would never know their true purpose in this vast universe that, in itself, would never release its secrets. Yuuki had often thought about these kinds of things in her times alone, but even she knew it was as fruitless as trying to stop the seasons from changing. It just would never happen.

One thing she did know however, was that this was without a doubt the greatest moment of her life.

The autumn-scented wind lapped fiercely at her body as Yuuki soared through the night sky. The world beneath her was barely visibly and Yuuki decided to pretend it wasn't there, that it was just her and the twinkling stars, together in unity. She had grown use to her wings quickly and, after some initial folly (such as painfully slamming into the bell tower of a cathedral) she overgrew her fear and tried to enjoy herself. Yet after only ten minutes, this came all on its own.

After realizing she could beat her wings without particularly thinking about it, just as one could walk for miles without concentrating on every step, Yuuki found that she could not only steer herself in different directions, but change her speed as well. With one hard beat, she could shoot upwards or downwards with breakneck velocity, depending on which way she chose to lean. She could swivel and pivot as though she were made not of different joints or parts, but one whole piece. She was in sync with herself, every muscle in tune, and for some reason she found her mind was more at peace than it had ever been. Her conscious thoughts flowed through her like a soft humming, low and without interruption, and her spine tingled in pure excitement as she rode a fresh gust of wind. Laughter poured from her uncontrollably and she was surprised at the sound, resonating and without restraint... she almost didn't recognize it. It reminded her of seraphim and tinkling bells and she laughed some more, startling a flock of birds who were twittering nervously beneath her. She tilted her head and watched them as they called to each other. One by one they arched their bodies, pointed their wings, and dipped down toward the Earth. She watched them descend with a renewed feeling of joy and decided it was time she return to her own home, where she was sure she had left many people with feelings of fear and worry. She suddenly felt pity for them, because they would never feel the kiss of the night sky or what it was like to live the dream of every man in history.

With one last pivot, Yuuki arched her body and forced her wings to flap persistently above her. She watched as the Earth and its cities came nearer towards her. To her, everything below resembled one big map, square and made of different colored patches of land and water. She could also see the ocean... and felt overcome with relief.

"_The sea is just a bit west of the city I'm over." _she thought_. "If I just follow the shore, I should be able to find my way back."_

As she flew closer towards the world, she began to make out tiny, moving cars and miniature people walking the streets. They looked like toys, like a model world that had been made from clay, and she wondered if that was how God saw the world. Her stomach clenched lightly as she picked up speed and, having learned her lesson earlier in the night, she made sure to carefully avoid the paths of tall buildings and any other dangerous obstacles. Suddenly Yuuki noticed she could now make out details of the town, such as storefronts and street markings. With this discovery, she realized that most humans weren't accustomed to seeing a winged woman soaring above them at lightning speed, and panic fluttered in her heart. She used all her strength to try and lift herself upwards from the rising ground. However this proved to be impossible as her body was positioned in landing mode, and the speed at which she had been moving downwards had built up to the point of no return. With that there was no mistake... she was going to have to land.

In what seemed like an instant, the ground had made contact. With one last attempt at a smooth landing, Yuuki put her feet out as she hit the cement in hopes she would be able to stand. However gravity would not have it, and instead sent her spiraling in vicious circles over yards of hard ground. In the midst of the madness, Yuuki tried to protect her head and face, holding her arms over them as a shield. Eventually, she came to a stop and found herself laying in a dingy alley.

Yuuki heaved a great sigh. She was glad for many reasons. One was that she had landed in a somewhat concealed area, and two being that she had remained conscious after the fall. She did not want to relive the nightmare she had experienced at the Sendai hospital.

She picked herself off of the ground only to realize her left arm was most definitely broken. It not only hurt very badly, but it stuck out at a very odd angle.

_"Damnit..." _she whispered angrily, ripping off a piece of her hospital gown and tying a makeshift sling around the break. After several minutes of carefully placing her arm into a somewhat-less painful angle, she realized she was going to have to walk the rest of the way. And she no longer had any idea which way the ocean was, let alone Cross Academy. How was she going to get back now?

"Yuuki?"

The young vampire whipped around at the sound of her name, a mixture of terror and anticipation rumbling in her gut. Down the alley stood someone in the darkness, and Yuuki couldn't help but fear the worst.


	7. Malice

_And the raven, never flitting, _

_still is sitting, still is sitting  
>On the pallid bust of Pallas<em>

_just above my chamber door;  
>And his eyes have all the seeming <em>

_of a demon that is dreaming,  
>And the lamp-light over him<em>

_streams his shadow on the floor;  
>And my soul from out that shadow<em>

_that lies floating on the floor  
>Shall be lifted - nevermore.<em>

_- Edgar Allen Poe, "The Raven" _

_...-..._

"_Idiot_...why are you still nowhere to be found?"

Zero Kiryuu paused and looked out the bedroom window. The sun's rays were just barely beginning to make an appearance on the edge of the horizon, tingeing the night sky with a soft orange glow. It would be morning very soon and, according to the headmaster, Yuuki had been missing for almost two nights. Her scent had almost gone from the air entirely, and its absence left a heavy weight in the young hunter's insides. He felt angry at himself that he had not noticed her absence before, yet he knew it was on account of many distractions, one of them being the approaching scent of Kaname Kuran. Yet if it were not the Pureblood responsible, then who had coaxed her away from the school she so desperately tried to protect? Why would she leave, and without even taking any of her belongings? Zero knew that Yuuki had never been a very materialistic person, but the presence of things like her toothbrush and a small resinated rose laying on her bedside table told him she had left in a hurry. But where had she gone?

Zero walked across the small, dimly lit room. A large canopy bed in the corner took up almost a fourth of the space. He walked over to it and ran the tips of his fingers over the powder blue sheets. The material felt soft in his hands and, upon rustling them about, he caught her scent once more. A sweet smell, almost like pure honey, yet with a tinge of something spicy and deep, like sandalwood. He took in such a big breath that he almost choked on his own saliva and then proceeded to lay on her bed. Like an animal in heat he writhed about, rubbing the length of his body against the place that his beloved girl slept. He buried his face in her pillows, smelling her so strongly that he whipped his head around to see if she had materialized behind him. Instead, another pureblood vampire stood in the open doorway, smiling at him as though it were Christmas morning. Within an instant he was on his feet, Bloody Rose pointed at the tall blonde's forehead. She chuckled.

"My, my Zero. It seems you were so distracted in your wiles that you failed to even sense my presence. How delightful to know such a dirty detail."

Zero's insides burned with hell-fire as he pressed the weapon harder to Sara Shibuki's temple. His fingers literally itched to pull the trigger, a feeling he had become accustomed to over the past year or so, and they danced over the shining metal surface with hungry anticipation. However he knew he could not, by any means, harm the wretched woman who stood smirking before him. No... she was not a woman to him at all. She was a viper, waiting to strike with her deadly poison.

"Get out of here, Vampire." Zero growled lowly. He couldn't shoot her now, but if she were to strike first...

The doll-like woman chuckled, as if she knew what he were thinking, and softly tossed back a lock of her golden hair. There was not the slightest trace of fear in her demeanor, and Zero knew then more than ever that she was capable of unspeakable things. As the two locked eyes, Zero noticed just how inhuman she really was. Her skin was pale and ashen, so white it made her look like a spectral beam of light, reflecting on a dark pond. Her eyes, though a normal blue color, had a strange aura to them, one that upon a second glance were proof enough that she was not a human being, but a creature of the night. They stared into him, cold and deep with delighted malice. They were the eyes of a smiling demon...

"Are we going to place this game all night, Zero?" she said softly. "Or are you going to put that gun away?"

There was a soft clicking sound as Zero cocked the Rose.

"Don't you... _dare_...call me by my name."

" My, aren't we sore today?" Sara said simply, as though they were having tea. "Is it because your princess has left you once again?"

With that, Zero slammed his opponent against the wall with all his strength. Sara saw his eyes burn crimson as she allowed him to pin her down. Delight overcame her as she watched his fury fill him... consume him. A thought came to her mind.

"When was the last time you had a drink... _Zero?"_

Zero's body began to shake as he restrained himself from killing her. He imagined himself crushing her larynx in his hand, slowly, forcefully, as he turned her to dust. No! He couldn't let her do this! This is what she wanted, for him to lose control, to slip up. He couldn't let her win. He wouldn't...

"I would never drink from you." Zero whispered, releasing his grip on her ever so slightly. "I would sooner cut my own throat and drink my life away then to taste the poison that flows in your veins."

"What powerful words." Sara whispered softly, leaning closer to Zero's ear. "I never knew you were such a poet..."

Before Zero even knew what was happening, Sara Shibuki was running her tongue over the hunter's sinewy neck. Her breath was hot as it met with his skin, and his mind was suddenly clouded and confused. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to focus. The rage had suddenly gone from him, as though it were never there, and he desperately tried to remember what it was he had just been doing. But to no avail.

"You know, I think I've taken a liking to you, _Zero_. We should be friends..."

The smiling woman ran her hands over Zero's shoulders, chuckling softly as he slowly released her from his grip. His body was hard and warm, and for just a moment, she herself was almost lost in her own game. But she would not be won that easily. After all, seduction was her best of talents. She ran her hands through his silvery hair, and felt a swelling of pride as a soft moan escaped his lips. Only a moment ago he had been a dangerous vampire, and now he was as placid as a child, waiting for her instruction. Her smile broadened, fangs extending. She would have her victory.

Zero felt like he was being swept up in a violent current. Electricity had replaced the blood in his veins and his thoughts had fallen silent. It was like his mind had been shut down, for he could not gain access to it. Somewhere in the very back of his head a voice screamed at him to get away, to escape, and with his remaining strength he focused in on the voice, trying to heed its warning. But it was all swept away in the blink of an eye as a he felt a warm hand slide under his shirt. Running across his chest and down to his waistline, it made one small swivel before it dipped down underneath the hem of his jeans. His mind went white.

Sara reamed with joy as she inched closer towards Zero's swelling member. This had been all too easy. She wondered how far she would go herself, how far she _could_ go. Yes, she decided, she would take everything. She'd take his innocence and his life blood until there would be nothing left for Princess Kuran. She smiled at the thought.

As Sara's fingertips just barely grazed his area, Zero's head leaned back towards the ceiling. His mind was spinning and his eyes rolled back. What was happening? Who was this person touching him? He couldn't open his eyes, he couldn't see or smell. He was lost in a web of confusion and lust, he felt he couldn't breathe. He felt himself spiraling down, towards a sea of darkness from which he couldn't return, and all the happiness sprung from his heart. Somehow he knew that if this continued, he would die.

Suddenly, a face flashed in his mind out of the middle of the darkness. Out of the confusion he saw her, bright and smiling and laughing as she always did. Reproaching him for skipping class, holding him, giving him her blood, all his memory came flooding back to him. She burst through his senses like a hurricane and he opened his eyes.

_"Yuuki..." _he whispered.

...

"What did you say?"

And then, just as soon as it started, it had stopped. Sara, who always caught on quickly, flung herself away from the hunter and leaped across the room in one effortless bound. Shots rang into the night as Zero emptied round after round at the pureblood vampire, screaming inaudibly as he tried desperately to focus his aim. However this was not an easy task, as the young woman moved like a blur in his sight, laughing raucously as though she were having the time of her life. Zero roared. He could take no more.

"YOU'RE GONNA DIE! YOU BITCH!"

As if to taunt him, Sara stopped moving and paused on the edge of the outside balcony. She crawled onto the railing with disturbing slowness, like something from a horror movie. But as she turned to gaze at her opponent, she gasped in spite of herself.

Zero Kiryuu stood tall before her, no longer a man, but an entity. A vampire, covered from head to toe in thorny vines, which crawled and grew around him like venomous snakes. As day began to break, a stream of light fell upon him as he pointed his remaining bullet at her forehead.

"This one..." he whispered to her. "Will not miss."

And as he fired his Bloody Rose, time seemed to stand still. Zero watched in slow motion as, for one glorious moment, it seemed as though the bullet would reach its target. However, his opponent had other plans, and with one last chuckle she disappeared into thin air, leaving behind the bitter scent of poison on his skin.


	8. Comraderie

_I'm going in for the kill,_

_I'm doin' it for a thrill._

_I'm hoping you'll understand_

_and won't let go of my hand."_

_-La Roux, "In for the Kill"_

...-...

_"Yuuki?"_

The pureblood vampire paused at the sound of her name, whispered quietly from the shadows of a dark alley. Her heart hammered in her chest. It was most definitely a vampire who stood before her now, and her body was weak with exhaustion. She forced herself to focus on the tall figure, standing perfectly still, almost disturbingly so as she anxiously waited for it to move. She felt like her old self again, scared and cornered and as fragile as a lily flower.

"Who are you?" she said loudly, sounding much bolder than she felt. "Come out of the dark so I can see you!"

"_Hime_, please calm down." said the soft male voice."It's only me..."

With that, the figure walked closer toward her. Dressed in white, with unmistakably blond hair, came Hanabusa Aidou from the darkness, whose blue eyes were filled with a look of relief. Yuuki felt relief as well...her worst fears had not come upon her yet.

"Aidou-san..."

"Yuuki!" yelled the young noble, straightening as though he had just realized where he was. "What the hell are you doing out here?! Do you know how worried Chairman Cross is? The night class thinks you've gone to find Kana..."

Aidou's sentence trailed and fell silent. His face contorted slightly and Yuuki remembered the pain he was in...the pain that her own brother had caused him.

_"Why would you do this to him, onii-sama... after he loved you so much?"_

"Kaname-senpai..." finished Aidou, forcing himself to say the name out loud. It hung in the air between them, like a restless spirit, before Yuuki broke the silence.

"That's not what I'm doing, Aidou-sama. I would have to be a fool to chase after him now."

"Then what are you doing? Taking a stroll?" retorted Aidou angrily, flailing his arms in the air. "Do you have any idea how long you've been gone?!"

"No..." Yuuki whispered.

Aidou stopped pacing then, turning his head and taking in her appearance for the first time. She was an unsightly mess from head to toe; her body was cut and bruised, arm hanging oddly at her side, and she was bleeding somewhere, for he could smell the sweet, delicious scent floating towards him in the breeze. He swallowed hard and took a step closer.

"Why are you bleeding, Yuuki? And is that a hospital gown you're wearing?"

"Yes." Yuuki said. "I fell off the balcony in my room, and the next thing I knew I was there. I've been trying to find my way back ever since."

Aidou's heart fell into his stomach. Here was Yuuki, the girl he was supposed to protect with his life, bleeding and broken and wandering the streets of Japan like a lost child. What would Kaname have done to him now? He shivered deeply despite himself.

"Please don't blame yourself, Aidou." said Yuuki softly, who knew what he was thinking**. **"This happened because I'm a clumsy idiot. Not because you did something wrong."

"Please, Yuuki-sama, it is my job to protect you. And you can be sure that I will never leave your side again. Now what happened to you?"

"I told you," said Yuuki. "I fell."

"No...you told me you fell three days ago. Surely your wounds from then would have healed by now."

Yuuki gulped. For some reason she had confused Aidou with a fool, yet she should've known better. He reminded her of an eagle... sharp, swift, and overprotective. She thought of some way to explain herself, but instead she just stammered her words.

"I ...well, I was..."

Suddenly Yuuki let out a gasp, for Aidou had advanced towards her in the blink of an eye. He now stood only an inch from her face, and for a moment, Yuuki thought he was going to kiss her. But instead, he rested his hand on her heart and drew in a long, deep breath.

"Yuuki... have you drank from someone?"

The young pureblood felt her spine grow cold. He must have smelt that man's blood in her veins, fueling her heart and giving her energy. The scene from earlier replayed in her mind and the weight of it suddenly hit her. Tears fell down her face. She was a monster.

"Oh Aidou..." she sobbed, letting her head fall on his shoulder in defeat. "I don't know what's happening to me. I felt like I had no choice, like I would die if I didn't. All I could see was him..."

The next thing Yuuki knew she was in Aidou's warm arms, being rocked gently as though she were a child. She couldn't take the weight of what she had done, and she cried harder into his sleeve.

"Yuuki..." Aidou said softly, so soft that Yuuki stopped to listen. "There is nothing unnatural about what you did. It is simply in our nature. And in the state you were in it's only expected that you would be literally starving."

"No..." Yuuki whispered. "I'm just like _her_...who took Zero's life and family away. I took that man's life away, too. I'm no better than a beast."

Until that very moment, it hadn't even occurred to Yuuki that Hank, the man from the hospital, was now a vampire. She was a pureblood after all, and the bite of a pureblood poisons the human life until it slowly bleeds away. She had literally destroyed him. 

_"Zero...you really will hate me now."_

Yuuki slumped onto the asphalt, weeping silently as she cradled her broken arm. What would become of her now? How would she face herself? Why did she have to be born a blood-thirsty beast?

Aidou said nothing as he watched Yuuki cry, yet his heart hurt deeply. Although he had been born a vampire into a noble vampire family, he sympathized with Yuuki. Being raised as a human, she had been thrust mercilessly into a life full of fear and bloodlust. Such a young girl... broken apart again and again by those that she loved. He also felt pity for the man she had bitten, for he, like many others throughout the history of time, would pay a heavy price. The world of Vampire was filled with guilt and sadness, and Aidou, nor any other vampire, would ever get used to the feeling.

After a few long minutes, Yuuki stopped sobbing. Although her heart bore a heavy weight, she was too exhausted to cry another tear. She looked up just in time to see Aidou leaning towards her. In one fell swoop, he lifted her body in his arms and carried her bridal style out of the dark alley.

"Aidou-san, what are you-?"

"Shhh, Yuuki-chan. What do you think? We're going home. It will be morning soon, and I am not fit in the sunlight like you and Kiryuu are."

At the mention of Zero's name, Yuuki fell silent. She closed her eyes and pictured his face, feeling her body slowly relax. Even if he hated her, she still...

"Now I hope you don't have motion sickness, Yuuki-chan, because I don't plan on making this a long trip. I was lucky enough to find you on the way here."

"What do you mean, Aidou?"

"I will show you once we get to the shore."

Yuuki was surprised that the ocean had not been far from where she'd fallen. In fact, it was just a few short minutes before she and Aidou were facing the magnificent body of water. Upon reaching the sand, Yuuki's senses went into overdrive. The salty smell, the roll and swish of the tide, and the cerulean water filled her insides and made her heart feel at ease. She made a mental note to visit again soon. She certainly could...

"Now, Yuuki, "Aidou said gruffly, snapping her out of her daze. "Grab onto my shoulders and hold on very tightly. Can you do this with your broken arm?"

"Yes, I think so." Yuuki said. "Are we going to swim?"

"Not quite" said Aidou. "Just hold on."

And with that, Aidou and Yuuki plunged into the ocean. Yuuki, expecting to get very wet, closed her eyes and held her breath. Yet she felt nothing. Confused, she opened them to find that they weren't swimming at all... they were gliding. Hanabusa Aidou, hands held out in front of him, was manipulating the water into ice, sliding along the makeshift path at incredible speed. The shoreline, now meters away, looked like a blur in Yuuki's sight. It was beautiful. From the side she was on she caught a glimpse of Aidou's face, focused and determined, and she couldn't help but laugh. He smiled too.

"I'm glad you're having fun." he said to her. She only laughed more, thrilled at the sight of their shining pathway home.


	9. Secrets

Yuuki Kuran had a hard time explaining herself upon their return to Cross Academy. Her and her vampire escort reached the premises just in time, for the sun's rays had started to peak over the eastern mountains. As they crossed the courtyard, Aidou's steps quickened, and eventually the two were running to beat the clock. It was common knowledge to vampires that the sun's first rays were the strongest, and many had grown sick and even died under its unforgiving light. Even Yuuki, who seemed to have built immunity from her years as a human, found herself anxious to reach the familiar steel doors.

When they got inside, all was quiet. The night class had gone to bed, and it was still too early for the day class to be awake. Yuuki breathed a long sigh of relief, glad that she would not have to deal with questions until the early evening. Her entire body ached, pushed to the brink of exhaustion from both lack of sleep and its need to continuously repair itself. Her arm had completely healed on the short journey back, and that gnawing reminder of immortality made Yuuki feel uncomfortable in her own skin. She shivered despite herself, and Aidou looked at her with concern.

"Are you alright?" he asked. "You don't look good at all!"

"Thanks..." Yuuki grumbled. "You don't look so well yourself.

Her statement was not untrue, for the usually-poised noble was looking uncharacteristically beaten down. His fine blonde hair was wet and matted, his class uniform torn and dirty, and the lack of color in his face caused Yuuki's stomach to churn with guilt. It was all her fault that he was like this... that he always had to come out and save her from some bad decision.

"I'm sorry, Aidou." she said, not bothering to add an honorific to his name.

He turned and gave her a weak smile. "It's fine, Yuuki. It's my fault for taking so long to find you, it's just that..."

The vampire was cut off by the soft sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. After a few seconds, Chairman Cross became visible out of the shadowy hall, a long sword glinting in his hand behind him.

"Yuuki..." he whispered softly, and she braced herself for the worst.

The conversation with her foster father had not gone well. From the moment she had seen him look at her, sword in hand, she knew that she had nothing to give him. No explanation as to how she had ended up in another city, what she had done for three whole days, or the reason she'd ended up unconscious in the first place. She stuck to the story that she had told Aidou, how she'd fallen off the balcony in her room, a clumsy mistake, and ended up in the hospital. The tale was mostly true, yet Yuuki knew it best not to tell anyone of her newfound strength, not even her own father.

She watched his face as her lips moved and shut, her words came out yet she knew they mattered not, for the eyes of the man across from her spoke their own language. "_I don't believe you," _they said, "_what have you been doing, Yuuki...?" _They flashed like steel and glinted with question, yet Yuuki held her ground. More pangs of guilt went through her as she lied to the only man who had taken her in, a man whose heart was filled with kindness and compassion for others. She lied knowing that she was hurting him, but after all, wasn't that all she ever did to those who loved her?

Her darkening thoughts were broken by a long sigh, and Kaien Cross rubbed the bridge of his nose underneath his spectacles. Yuuki noticed then for the first time that he looked very tired, and she had a sudden urge to reach across his desk and hug him tightly. But she didn't.

"That will be enough for tonight, Yuuki. Please go right to bed and clean yourself up. We'll talk some more tomorrow."

"Yes, Chairman." Yuuki said quietly, resisting another urge to call him 'father'. Yet something stopped her.

There was another presence outside of the door, an enticing and familiar smell, and Yuuki mentally cursed herself for not noticing it before.

_Zero..._

She stood up quickly, too quickly, because she tripped over her own chair and went tumbling onto the floor. The white jacket that Aidou had given her earlier fell off her shoulders as she attempted to catch herself, but the blonde vampire caught her first.

"_Yuuki,"_ he moaned, not bothering to hide the frustration in his voice. "Can you _please_ be more careful from now o-..."

Aidou stopped short in his sentence, noticing something he'd failed to see before. Down Yuuki's back, underneath her tattered gown, were two long wounds. They somewhat resembled slashes, and though they were almost healed, he could tell they had been deep. His brows furrowed in confusion. What could they possibly be?

Yuuki, who sensed the tension, turned over to face her former tutor. She saw how his eyes burned with question, so blue and intense that she thought he would turn her to ice, like he had the sea...

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Yuuki's stomach did a flip inside of her. She watched Zero watching the scene before him; Yuuki, tattered and broken, being held up in Aidou's arms on the floor of the Chairman's study.

"What..." he said menacingly. "Is going on here?"

"Ahh, Zero, I was wondering when you would come in." the Chairman said, clapping his hands together and putting on a glorious smile. "As you can see we have our Yuuki back, and everything is in order. Please do not worry."

Zero' s piercing eyes went back to Yuuki, who was scrambling herself off of the floor along with Aidou, who for some reason had turned red and excused himself. Yuuki's eyes shot darts at his back as he retreated from the office without a backward glance. She muttered something inaudible under her breath, and looked back up at Zero. His eyes were cold and emotionless, and they regarded her for what seemed like ages before anything was said. Her heart pounded in her throat, and she knew that he could hear it, that he could smell every pump of blood in her body. Could he smell her sin like Aidou had? She swallowed hard at the thought, but instantly regretted it as she watched Zero's eyes follow the lump in her throat. His eyes were like a burning furnace, so intense that she felt she would melt under their pressure. Yet she found herself lost in them, staring deeper into the violet orbs until she was actually leaning forward to get closer to them. She wanted to be closer, she wanted to feel the warmth coming from his body and be one with it. Like the desert yearned for rain, like a flower yearned for sunlight, she too yearned to be closer to his rigid form. Her heart was banging in her chest and she heard his quicken too, a scent coming from him like an incense so strong she felt she may choke on its sweetness. She found herself staring at his neck, but forced the animal in her to look back into his eyes. They were looking at her face again, and for just a moment she thought she saw a flicker of concern, but of course she was wrong.

"Why are you wearing that thing?" he asked coldly, looking at her like a fly on the wall. "Why don't you go and put some clothes on?"

Yuuki felt her cheeks turn bright red. The hospital gown, or what was left of it, was made of a very thin material, and underneath it she wore nothing but her panties.

"Yes..." she said quickly. "I'm going to go change. I just-"

"Please Yuuki," the Chairman interrupted. "It's been a long night for all of us. Now, please go and sleep. I don't want to see you all beaten up like this anymore! It makes me feel like such a bad father!"

Yuuki couldn't help but roll her eyes, her usual reaction to the Chairman's dramatics, and proceeded slowly towards the door. It took everything in her not to run, out of the room, away from the tension and the lies, but she knew she had dug a deep enough hole for herself, and didn't want to make things any worse for tonight. She snuck one last look at Zero, who seemed to be very interested in something out the window, and walked through the doorway.

"And Yuuki," the chairman called to her, his voice sounding almost desperate. "Please...stay inside."

Yuuki bowed her head, letting her shame and guilt rush over her at once. She felt so many emotions that she felt she may suffocate under the pressure. Was it all she could do but cause people pain?

"Yes...I will."


	10. Smile

_You got a heart on fire,_

_it's bursting with desire._

_You got a heart full of passion,_

_will you let it burn for hate or compassion?_

-_Jose Gonzalez, "Killing for Love"_

...-...

Days went by like sand in the wind, and Yuuki passed through them in a colorless daze. Attending class in the daytime and keeping the vampires from stirring at night, she slept only in the early morning hours, when no one was around to disturb her. Last week's incident played through her mind over and over again, and though everyone had heard her alibi, no one had questioned her any further. It was as though they feared her answer, and she thought she knew why. Zero...the night class... they all believed her disappearance had something to do with Kaname, that her broken heart could take no more and she had run away to be in the arms of her lover. This is what the they all assumed, and the idea that she would even attempt to see him now, after all that had transpired, made her realize that no one really knew her at all.

She could feel something moving inside of her, an emotion of sorts, but more than that they were fractions of memories, pieces of her life she struggled to adhere. At the tender age of seventeen she was feeling so much older, so much more restless, though no one could ever tell by seeing. She walked to her window and picked up a small amber stone from the night-table. As she raised it up into the fading sunlight, her stomach clenched with nostalgia, and she gazed at the tiny flower that was inside . She remembered what Kaname had promised her when she was living with the Chairman, that he would one day whisk her away; that on one silent night he would take her from her daily life and bring her to a magnificent field of roses that never died, which in rain or shine would live to bloom. To be with Kaname, strong and unchanging, had meant everything to her then. The sound of that promise had sang in her ears and filled her empty days with hope. The promises of eternal life and love, too sweet for her human heart to ignore, were all that she could wish for back then...but what were they now?

She leaned back and let herself fall into her bed, trusting that it would be there to catch her fall, though she hadn't looked behind her. She fell down hard, body bouncing along with the movements and the force of gravity. She felt weighed down by it now, suffocated and breathless, like she no longer belonged. Now that she had tasted the sky, she could no longer wait in her cage like a sparrow. It made her feel confused and disarrayed. She longed to be free from her troubles...to be free from herself. To feel the joy and redemption and happiness that she thought she had lost, the sweet reminder that Yuuki Cross was not just a memory, but a mirror self.

Rolling over in her bed, she flexed her long limbs above her, only to have her hand brush against the resin rose once again. She wrapped her fingers around it, letting the memories stipple her thoughts. She thought of Kaname, her dear brother, with soft brown eyes that always seemed to smile for her...for only her. She thought of the boy in the snow all those years ago, and how they were as children before everything had fallen apart. She remembered her thoughts of him while she was still a human, when her memories had been hidden. She recalled these feelings more than the rest, for they were peppered with intense love and admiration, with respect and fear. But most of all...they were covered with lust. She blushed as she recalled the nights she'd spent dreaming of him, of the day when he would touch her in her most intimate of places. How she would imagine him naked beneath her as she had her way. Yes, these were the things that had filled her lonely nights as she lay in her virgin bed, wondering what it would be like to taste a man, to feel his body. She remembered all the days she'd spent alone in their secluded home, how she would lay in her bed with her prettiest nightdress and wait for him to come to her. But he never did. He never came. And she would often cry herself to sleep in her guilty loneliness.

But even now, even still, she wondered how it would feel to be loved by another; physically , intimately, musically... as they crashed together like the sand and the tide. She imagined a hard body and warm fingers touching her in places she longed to be touched, an intense love and passion she'd never felt. Breathless now, she placed her hands upon herself and thought of Kaname once again, trying to unearth the lewd fantasies that had once distracted her from daily life, but they did not come. Instead, she was filled with painful truths, memories that sliced through her happiness like a bleeding wound. She remembered that day... the guilt and shock as she remembered who she really was, what she was, and the realization that the object of her feral attraction was actually her own flesh and blood. Though it was normal for pureblood vampires to wed within family, her years as a human had destroyed that right within her, making her feel ugly and sinful as she harbored love for her own brother. Although Kaname was, in reality, her distant ancestor, being Yuuki Cross had left a large footprint in her morals , and also her heart. But in truth it was knowing that, after all those years, he had known what could never truly be. They were doomed for each other, two broken pieces that would no longer fit. He had a doomed destiny, one of secrets and pain, and she felt in her heart that his path was not the right one.

_"Why would you make me yours again, just to take yourself away?"_

She remembered all the things he had shown her that night, when he had brought her to his coffin and told her the truth about his past. The truth had taken weeks to settle in, and even now the idea was hard to grasp. Kaname was an old soul, and he had lived many years in silent anguish. She wept silently, as she had before. His words from that night rang through her heart,

_"The feeling of powerlessness...the fact that there are things, for which no matter how hard one tries, always comes down to nothing..."_

Yuuki's heart faltered as she remembered the sacrifice and bloodshed, the deep pain she had felt in her heart as Kaname had shared his memories. The despair and loss and loneliness... she knew it all too well, though not as much as he. Yet he had chosen this path, he had chosen this path away from her. In his self-righteous way he had taken up this destiny and accepted a fate without her and their forgotten dreams. Yuuki let herself weep silently as she thought of her brother, of her lover, though she knew he really was neither. Though she loved Kaname deeply, she was aware now of the things they had lost. He once was everything, all she had, all she could ever want; but now things had changed... and so had they. She wondered if there was a future that could ever exist for them. But the truth made her heart ache.

She thought again of the young girl's sacrifice, and for the thousandth time realized what that meant for her, and for everyone she knew. She knew that the war between human and vampire was going to begin once again, and she wondered deep in her heart if there would be no victory.

Then something hit her suddenly, a face, a thought, a realization that brought along a terrible sadness. It weighed down her heart like the blackest storm and she clenched her fists, trying to contain a wall of emotions that welled up inside of her. Zero, though a hunter, was fighting the war on both sides, but instead he was fighting it within himself. She let herself imagine the pain and loneliness of being the very thing that had destroyed you. She thought of the hate that was slowly killing him, eating at his soul and bringing darkness to his days as time went on. All this time she had been struggling to deal with her own pain, her own loss, and she had been pushing thoughts of him into the deep recesses of her mind, wanting to ignore the pain and sadness of losing him. She remembered the day she had left him, the realization that he had loved her and had continually watched her as she longed for another. She remembered the look on his face as he had carried the corpse of his only brother..a look devoid of hope, of faith. Of weary eyes that seemed as though they would never again look to the sky or smile from within. But he was still _here_, still here with her, yet she was not there for him. How could she not be?

_Zero._ She wanted to see his smile again. She wanted him to smile for _her_.

A soft wind rustled the curtains by her window and, without thinking, Yuuki Kuran leapt from her bed and into the cool evening's welcoming arms.

...-...

Hanabusa Aidou did not like to be made a fool. He very much disliked being kept in the dark when he knew that there was something to be found, something to be discovered, and it burned at him with a nagging ebb. Secrets were something he had never grown used to, even as Kaname had always kept things hidden from him until the very last moment. He considered himself to be a smart man, no, a scholarly man, and he felt he deserved to know what was happening around him in the midst of war and other such things.

Aidou wandered the school grounds with questions burning in his mind. He thought of his diagrams back in his room, complicated charts and notes that he had put together in hopes to make sense of what happened around him. He pictured the large memory board hidden inside of his closet, tacked with pictures from history texts, notes and maps, and the little lines he drew to connect things of significance. So far he had come to many conclusions, mostly concerning the plans of his former friend and master. The same man who had murdered his own father with not even a whisper of reason. He thought back to his diagram, where at the very center sat a faded picture of he and his father, taken when he was just a child. His father was smiling in the picture, and Aidou realized that his father had almost never done so. Someone had captured that rare moment and its long-faded memory would be forever held inside of his heart. That was all he had left.

Aidou's thoughts wandered to Yuuki and the strange wounds that had stretched down her back. She had acted strange that night, and had been avoiding him ever since. Walking around the campus to avoid him in the hall, meeting with the chairman during the daylight hours, these were all things that pointed to one solution, and that was secrets. Yuuki was hiding something, and he had yet to find out what.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he did not notice the small girl hiding in the bushes near the garden. In fact, he was so caught off guard that he tripped over her foot and yelled in alarm , catching himself gracefully mid-fall. He looked down at the girl, trying to stifle his embarrassment, and saw that it was Yuuki's friend, Sayori Wakaba, wearing a thin white dress and holding what looked to be pen and paper.

"What are you doing out here at night?" he asked her coolly, though he hoped to intimidate her with his suggestive tone. "You of all day class students should be aware of the consequences."

He watched her in slight surprise as she stood up to face him. She was very short and petite, but he saw how she puffed out her chest and tilted out her chin to appear more bold and confident, yet still kept a safe distance away.

"I was...writing." she said, and Aidou was once again aware of the notebook in her hand. "It's pretty out here at night and it helps me get more creative."

"I see. What is it that you are writing? Poetry, fiction, or some sort of sexually suggestive love story that young girls like you seem to devour?"

He saw her cheeks turn pink, and in that instant he heard her heart quicken. A soft, flowery smell began to waft toward him in the breeze, and it reminded him of the honeysuckles his mother used to plant outside his bedroom window. There was something else he smelled on her as well, though he couldn't quite place it.

He took a step towards her and she took a step back, but for the first time he saw alarm in her eyes, though her heart had slowed down, as though she were trying to calm herself. He felt his throat getting dryer and for a moment he weighed the consequences of drinking the girl's blood versus the consequences of not doing so. But something flashed in his mind, a memory of the girl standing up for him as all the other day class students yelled that he was a monster. Memories of her and Yuuki together even after discovering her true nature. He felt his heartbeat soften and his aching jaw relaxed just a little.

He took three steps back from her and she visibly relaxed in front of him. Reaching back, she pushed a strand of honey-brown hair from her eyes, and then raised her gaze to his.

"Were you going to bite me?" she whispered.

Aidou had no idea how to respond. This girl had once again caught him off guard, and he realized that it was the second-most thing he disliked being. He clenched and unclenched his jaw, debating his answer as she waited.

"I was considering it." he finally said, and the second the words were out of his mouth he wished he hadn't said them. "But I am bound by my role as protector here and I do not wish to destroy my image."

She was quiet for a moment, and he watched her as she appeared to be debating something. She had a cute heart-shaped face, like a pixie, and he saw how her lips puffed out as she thought.

"I don't think that's why you didn't." she finally said. "But regardless of that, I still thank you."

This time Aidou didn't hide his surprise. Who exactly was this girl? Not only didn't she run from him, but she held her ground and boldly accused him of lying to her face. How irritating!

His angry thoughts were interrupted by a soft giggle, so quiet he thought he had imagined it, but when he looked up she was smiling. It was a gentle smile, the kind you would give to a friend, and the young vampire felt confused. He felt himself return the favor, and her smile disappeared. She instead regarded him with a strange look, and though he couldn't read it, it made him uncomfortable.

"Do you know if Yuuki is awake?" he asked her, wanting to break from the moment. "There is something I need to ask her."

Her face changed again, though this time it was a look he recognized far too well. A look of secrets, a look of knowing, she knew something about Yuuki. Another piece to the puzzle.

"She's went out." Yori said. " She's not in her room."

Aidou was about to go into full-fledged panic, and she must have sensed it, for she said,

"I watched her go, she went through the south clearing and across the stream. She must've went to see Zero. "

Aidou's body exploded with relief, but then he remembered something.

"I thought you said you were writing."

"I was..." she said slowly, but the look on her face suggested it wasn't the whole truth. "It's a very nice night." And with that, she smiled at him once more and ran back towards the school, making Aidou wonder what was really in that little blue notebook of hers.

...-...

**Author's Comments**

_I apologize for taking so long to update. Life happens, but I will try to finish this story in a timely manner. I also apologize that there was so much reminiscing in this chapter, I just needed to establish Yuuki's feelings for Kaname before I could continue. Any true VK fan knows that Yuuki loves Kaname as well ( but we just love Zero better ;) So please review. Thank you! _


	11. Blame

_When to the heart of man,  
>Was it ever less than treason<br>To go with the drift of things,  
>To yield with grace to reason,<br>And bow and accept the end  
>Of a love or of a season?<em>

_-__Robert Frost_

...-...

The night was uneventful as Zero lay in his bed. He had been there for several hours, propped up against the wall behind him and thinking deeply. He quieted his whirring mind and let all of his memories flood him, both recent and not, trying to piece them together once more. The unforsaken death of his family and all of the things that could've been had put a roiling hatred inside of him. It burned and rotted in his stomach like poison and from it he could never quite sleep. It seemed to grow inside of him every day, and he tried desperately to keep it contained, much like his hunger, yet the two traits were his greatest shame. He could never quite find a place to put these feelings, never quite find an escape from his anger and sorrow. When not hunting or on other such business, he would spend his free time practicing _Jeet-Kune-Do _or various other martial arts with Kaito, though when the high was done and his mind unoccupied, he would fall right back into the darkness... much like he was now.

These maudlin feelings had been a part of Zero's life since he was a young child, though he had not always suffered them alone. Only a year ago, though it seemed like many more, he'd had someone to fall back on, someone to trust and to care for. That person had always been there in his weakest moments, had always thought his life one worth living. He remembered how she could just be there, without saying a word, yet somehow her very presence would soothe him. She, with her gentle posture and her unblinking eyes, would always bring him as close to peace as he would ever be. He closed his eyes, remembering, but then frowned.

That person was gone. She had been eaten. She was a demon now.

Like him.

Zero waited until he could no longer hear the sound of his heart, which had begun to pound at thoughts of her. He took several long breaths in an attempt to calm himself, and finally his body came to rest. He leaned back and slunk into an old moldy pillow, which he didn't care enough to throw away, and began to settle into his rarely-used bed. He listened to the sounds of the night for many long moments, the rising and falling of his breath, an owl in the distance, and a soft whistling breeze that blew through his open window. His weary mind settled as a great calm came over him, and he began to drift into a dreamless sleep as the crickets outside sang him their late-summer lullaby.

But suddenly they stopped...

Zero shot up in his bed as though sleep had never meant to claim him. He crawled towards the open window with the slow, unfailing grace of a feline predator and paused as he reached the edge. Using both his hunter instincts and his beastly nature, he listened once again. The forest, which had been teeming with life only moments ago, had gone completely still. There were no singing crickets, no owls or rustling trees... even the breeze itself had died away as though time had suddenly stopped.

_"Vampires..."_ Zero growled to himself, and in just three heartbeat's time he was out the cottage door and into the forest's unforgiving shadows.

...-...

Yuuki's footsteps were as quiet as December snowfall as she made her way through the clearing and into the depths of the forest. All the trees around her were preparing for autumn, dropping their many-colored leaves and giving off an intoxicating scent. It reminded Yuuki of the days she and Zero would have to rake the leaves outside, while he would put the leaves in a neat little pile, she would jump into them straight after. She remembered how he would get angry and start again, but he would always smile as she laughed it off.

She chuckled softly at the memories as she jumped clean over a small river, which was on her way to Zero's. The small, one-room cottage sat near the southwest corner of the wood, conveniently located between Cross Academy grounds and the opposite entrance into the forest. Yuuki wondered if this was merely coincidence, yet figured it was not. After all, Zero was to be the next head of the Hunter's Association, future leader and protector of the elite group. He was their closest heir, their best fighter, their most resilient weapon...

_"...and their greatest assassin."_

Yuuki shivered involuntarily as an image of Zero came into her mind; a man, more a beast than any, swarmed entirely by razored vines, bleeding and surrounded by the bodies of the dead...

_...including hers._

She quickly pushed away the thought, shaking her head violently as if to physically force it out if her mind. This image was not the first to come before her, for this Zero was the one who haunted her secret nightmares, the one whom she feared and prayed would never come to pass.

But no...Zero was not that man, nor was a he a beast. She thought back to old memories of him, his soft smile, his quiet strength...this was not the man who would spill and drain her blood.

_Was he?_

Yuuki's thoughts were interrupted by an unfamiliar sound, and she stopped quickly to listen. Standing completely still she could just hear it, the soft rustling of leaves, so far that the average person would not have picked it up... but average she was not. With catlike poise she crept closer down the beaten path, hoping secretly that it was only a deer or a rabbit , but as she moved closer she realized it was too big to be either... and it was moving faster than before. Her heart fluttered in her chest, for she knew that anything sneaking in this forest at night was bound to be troublesome.

After walking several yards deeper into the wood, she approached a small clearing which was littered with splintered branches and bramble. All of the limbs were broken in a strange manner, as though someone had literally ripped them from the trees. She stopped again and listened, trying to hear over her quickened breath. Yet the forest had fallen silent. There were no more footsteps, nor was there any other sound. Yuuki let herself relax, and began to walk away from the dimly-lit clearing, but that was when she heard it.

The sound of a man's scream, more of a howl than such, echoed in the distance like a war drum, and it's strangled tone put instant fear in her heart. Without thinking, Yuuki pulled Artemis from his place on her thigh and ran towards the sound with lightning speed. She did not hear it again, yet her heart raced wildly as she came upon the scene.

She smelled it long before she saw it.

A man was lying a few miles from the clearing, limbs sprawled out in odd directions. He was bleeding profusely, for Yuuki smelled his lead-scented blood so strongly that she became dizzy with instinctual thirst, though only for a moment. She bit down her lip and walked towards him slowly, but made it only a few feet before stopping cold in her tracks.

The man's body was completely ravaged, from several feet away she could see the gaping wounds, still trickling with dark red blood. His clothing was torn apart, and through it she could see the long and deep gashes covering his flesh. His body was turned away from her, but from where she stood she could see that he was missing half his left arm. Her stomach turned, her head went cold and her ears rang loudly, but Yuuki went towards him as if in a trance.

The forest was completely still as she knelt down beside the mangled body. She knew now that he was dead, for his heart was silent, and the horror of it fell down upon her. She looked around wildly for the attacker, yet there was nothing. Knowing it was wise to stay silent, she crushed her sobs down deep inside of her and forced her hand to touch him. Gathering up all her strength, she turned the man's body towards her, but her courage escaped her and she screamed.

It was the man from the hospital, whom she had bitten, and her vision blurred and swayed as she held on desperately to her consciousness. Bile crept up her throat as his head rolled limply in her hands, his once ocean-blue eyes now empty and grey. She couldn't believe this was happening to her, and wondered if God was punishing her for what she had done, for what she was. Her biggest regret had now become her deepest self-loathing, avenged seven-fold for her impure existence. She cried cold tears and put her hand over his eyes, because she could no longer bear to look at them. Though empty and void of life, they looked as though they were accusing her, blaming her for his death. She remembered how he had cried that night, as she took his life for the first time, and the terror in his eyes when his heart had begun to beat once more.

_"I made him a vampire..." _Yuuki thought bitterly, and upon remembering tilted his face to hers. In the sliver of moonlight she could see the two small fangs, poking from his paling lips and confirming her worst of fears. She swallowed another urge to scream.

A soft clicking sound interrupted her sorrow, and Yuuki recognized it instantly. A different type of fear ran up her spine then, for she'd been discovered by the one person from whom she would have died to keep her darkest secret. She turned towards him slowly.

_"Zero..."_

It was all she could say, because his eyes said everything else. They regarded her with a mix of familiar hate and an unfamiliar look of deep disappointment and sadness. She watched his jaw clench as their gazes met, and his grip on the gun tightened.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here." he whispered, and the darkness of his tone made Yuuki remember the Zero from her nightmares. She swallowed down hard and looked up at him slowly.

"I would ask that you do," she said quietly. "But if you would make it as quick and as painless as can be, then I would be grateful to you."

Yuuki watched a strange emotion pass over Zero's face, and like a shadow it was gone. She had truly expected to die in that moment, and was shocked as Zero dropped his gun and pulled her up roughly from the ground. She couldn't help but gasp as his hands gripped her painfully and forced her to face him, pulling her so close to his body that her heartbeat raced. She watched his face to see if he'd heard , though if he had he didn't let it show. He stared hard into her red-rimmed eyes, as though searching for something, and the two of them stood that way for several long moments. Chests rising and falling, Yuuki looked into his violet eyes and silently pleaded with him to understand. She didn't want him to know of her mistake, but she was not a murderer and she realized now that she did not want to die.

"Zero, I...I didn't do this." she said, though she realized it was partly a lie. She had put this man here, in this position, to turn in to a Level E vampire and be killed by whatever had ripped the branches from the trees. She was responsible.

His hands gripped tighter on her for a moment, and then forcefully pushed her away.

"I know." Was all he said, and he walked over to examine the man's body. She watched, frozen, as he examined the corpse without any sign of fear or disgust. He ran his hands over the wounds and lifted his shirt to have a better look. Yuuki turned away and steadied herself on a nearby oak tree, shaking with fear and regret. Though the next thing she knew Zero was staring at her, his face calm and expressionless, though his aura was like the eye of a storm.

"You need to get away from here." he said plainly, and Yuuki wondered if he was concerned for her safety or if he was simply disgusted by her presence.

All she could do was nod, and she waited for him as he finished up his investigation. After one more minute of examining his wounds, he pulled the man's shirt back over his stomach and laid his hand on his head. Yuuki watched with an aching pain in her heart as Zero slowly closed his eyes, but then he froze.

"Zero?" she asked him. "What is it?"

Zero was staring at the man very intently, as though something had just occurred to him, and his eyes were wide with a strange emotion. But he stood up suddenly and turned to leave as though nothing had happened. He did not answer her question then nor on their way back to Cross Academy, but she did not ask again. Maybe it was the way he had closed up, the way she knew he always did when something was to be unspoken, or maybe it was the look in his eyes that made her scared to ask, but neither spoke again for the rest of the night.

Zero went home that night and was haunted by a storm of nightmares. He dreamt of demons in his room, coming for him and speaking in evil tongues. He dreamt of the girl he loved, bleeding her life away on the ground before him. He dreamt of a dead man in the woods, bleeding and torn, with two small holes in his neck that reminded him of another nightmare... one that was much more real.


	12. The Dark

_If any God should will_

_To wipe from mind_

_The memory of this ill,_

_Which is Mankind._

_In soul and substance now-who would not bless_

_Even to tears, His loving tenderness?_

- Rudyard Kipling, _"Rebirth"_

...-...

The _Aokigahara_ forest had never been quite as silent as it was on this late September night. It's already insidious aura had fallen into a darker place, so cold and bewitching that even the animals had left its shelter, migrating further north and away from the baleful mountainside. The forest was so great in girth that the wind itself was unable to enter it, and only by this cover of silence could it carry on with its iniquitous deeds. With only Death's shuddering breath to graze upon its grass, the land was home to whatever demon or unclean spirit decided to take its dwelling.

Sara Shibuki walked through the thickened bushes and gnarled branches with ease. She had always been partial to nature, and often found herself wandering remote jungles and great expanses of forest in order to burn off excess energy, for she had so very much of it. Glancing down at her bare and unmarred feet, she took note of the volcanic rock that made up most of the mountain-side, and knew that there was not much farther to go. A grim issue was to be handled this night, even by her standards, but she knew it to be absolutely necessary. There was a secret that needed revealing, one she could not obtain by any other means. She needed the upper hand.

_"I will not lose this game, Kaname." _

Upon arriving at her destination, Sara kicked at the bramble and gave a small _"tsk",_ wondering how anyone could be so weak. On the ground before her lay a very thin young man, wheezing in a feeble attempt to catch his breath. Grasping at his neck, he writhed unpleasantly, a small shard of rope still knotted around it.

"Ah, such sweet irony..." Sara whispered to the man softly, believing herself to be quite the poet. "You came to this place tonight to end your life, only to acquire a whole new one entirely. A great fortune on your part, I must say."

The boy gasped horribly, his muddy-colored skin gleaming with sweat in the moonlight. He could not have been any older than twenty, Sara mused, for he was dressed in the sloppy, western manner that all young men did in this age. She found it very distasteful.

He continued to wheeze and sputter as she looked down at him, brown eyes wide with fear and shock. Like thousands of others, he had come to the _Aokigahara_ with plans of suicide... but unlike all those before him, had not succeeded.

"It is lucky for you that I found you on time," said Sara softly. "You would have only had a minute, maybe two, until your neck had snapped like the branch that held you. Are you not filled with a renewed sense of happiness?"

The boy stared up at her for a few long moments, then slowly, shook his head no. He began to sob quietly, to which point Sara kneeled down beside him.

"Shh now, there's no need to weep," crooned Sara, placing her hand on his glistening forehead. "Your old life is now gone away. I shall give you a new one, one where there will be no more pain and death. All I ask is your loyalty in return. Do you agree?"

The young man went quiet and opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He simply stared up at the beautiful woman, silently, as though taking in the saccharine promises that coated her tongue. Her voice had become quiet and wispy, reminding the young man of a friend telling secrets, or a mother whispering to her young child. He stared into her gleaming eyes, suddenly imagining a vast and dark ocean, waves crashing down upon each other as though in a storm. He gave a breathless gasp when she leaned in towards him.

"Do we have an agreement?" she asked again, sliding her small, doll-like hand into his own. He gripped it softly in return, and she took that as her answer. Within an instant, she was draining him of his blood, while he clawed and yelled, having finally found his voice. But Sara was used to this sort of thing, and praised herself silently as she did what she thought to be a very noble thing indeed.

When all was said and done, Sara waited. It would take time for the boy to be awakened, but this was fine, because there was much she had to do. She could smell it in the air, the fear, the despair, and it beckoned to her from deep inside. This young man's purpose would be greater than any he could've had before, and for the first time in a long while, Sara felt true satisfaction. This boy would be used as a test, a cog in her grand machine, because there was something she was unsure of, something even she couldn't believe, and the very idea of it threatened her existence.

_"I will be coming soon... Princess Kuran."_

Sara picked up the young man and laid him gracefully over her shoulders. To her he weighed nothing at all, for a pureblood vampire's strength was greater than most others, and with him she departed further down the mountainside. However if she had only bothered to take in her surroundings, she would have seen the tall, bat-like figure on the northern cliff, silhouetted against the waning moonlight and waiting in silence.

...-...

**Authors Comments**

_Dear FF readers, I apologize again about the delay... and the super-short chapter. However after reading the newest Vampire Knight installation, chapter 86, and getting the feeling that there's almost no chance for a true "Zeki" ending, I have an even deeper need to finish this story as best as I can! It's driving me absolutely crazy! :) So I hope you're all enjoying the story so far, and please continue to give me your feedback. Thanks for reading!_


	13. Desire

Yuuki awoke in a cold sweat. She had been suffering from strange and unfamiliar dreams, each one similar to the last, for the past four evenings. They all began inside of a small and dimly lit room. There were no windows, no doors, or furniture inside of this room...nothing save for a small birdcage, standing alone in the corner and holding what looked to be a tiny, gray canary. At first she would stand there, frozen, unable to move or do anything else apart from stare at the bird. It flitted and jumped around nervously, as if she were a threat, and the longer she watched the more agitated it became. It rammed itself into the sides of the cage, feathers ruffling and metal wires clanging, crying out as though it were in pain. As Yuuki stood helplessly and watched, a feeling would begin to coil in the pit of her stomach. It was a strange and unexplainable dread, one typically felt in nightmares, and just as her fear would come to climax the bird let out a terrible screech, feathers molting off as though invisible hands were plucking them. At this point of the dream her body would move, allowing her to run across the room in fright, away from the swinging cage and towards the opposite end where a door now stood. Her hands would just graze the doorknob when it suddenly stretched away from her, out of her reach, and she would turn around unwillingly to find the bird dead upon the floor.

The next part of the dream was different every time, for sometimes she would see faces and things she knew in daily life, comforting and bright, flitting before her as if they were momentarily there, or she somewhere else; but other dreams would bring scenes of horror, images of blood and war, or of empty blue eyes staring straight into the sky...

Yuuki shook her head and breathed deeply as she clambered out of bed. She let the lingering emotions drip off of her as though they were water, taking in the crisp autumn air that drifted through the open window. It was a calm and peaceful night. Nothing was stirring or out of place, and she wondered why she would have these dreams now, when all seemed well enough, and what they could possibly mean. She thought back to the dreams she'd had when her body was still struggling to remember its secret, that she was a vampire, and the memories she'd once had were struggling to return. Despite the similarities of fear and fright, she somehow felt that these were a different kind of dream, and then wondered to herself how many different kinds there could be.

As Yuuki stood in a cloud of thought, a strong breeze blew through the open window and lifted her hair from her shoulders. The long brown locks flew wildly behind her like ribbons of tickling silk, and she relished the feeling. She felt suddenly that she could use a walk outside, mostly to clear her mind, but also to test her strengths once more. It had been a month or two now since she had last used her newfound talent, and she yearned for the exhilarating feeling. Opening the tall windows that served doubly as patio doors, she stepped outside and poked her head over the balcony.

"_It _is_ a long way down..._" she thought, taking in the distance between herself and the ground. _"Maybe I'd better take the stairs to the roof and practice there first. Just to be safe."_

She tiptoed from her room and closed the door quietly, aware that her neighbors had excellent hearing. The last thing she wanted was to be spotted by a student of the night class, let alone Aidou, who had been tailing her closely since the night of her disappearance. She had a sinking feeling that he suspected more than he let on, and she had enough things to worry about like that with the Chairman...

She crept along the sweeping corridors with feline grace, avoiding the parts of the floor where rug became marble, for it was harder to keep silent on such than on soft, plush carpet. After successfully passing all of the bedrooms without waking a soul, she turned left at the end of the hall and up the winding marble staircase. She was only about halfway around them when she heard a soft noise, echoing lowly from the top of the stairs. It sounded to Yuuki like a whimper of pain, but as she crept closer up the staircase and peeked her head from underneath the banister, she realized with horror that it was anything but.

At the beginning of the hall on the topmost floor of Cross Academy sat a large and disused music room. Once elegant and polished, it was used to teach music to day-class students before the night class had been introduced shortly after. Now the day class had a smaller, newer room in which they held their lessons, one that resided on their side of the building, and this one, seeing as vampires were naturally talented in such things, was hardly ever used. However this was not the case tonight, for as Yuuki peered her head just underneath the top of the stairs, she could see clearly that it was indeed occupied.

In the light of the moon through the long rows of windows, she could easily see the two people in the room, making what Yuuki thought to be furious and passionate love. Their naked bodies were grinding against each other with want and fervor, glistening with the sweat that beaded on their glowing skin. The young woman sat on top of the man, straddling him as he leaned against a long piano bench. His long-fingered hands were wrapped around her hips, roaming and guiding them as she slammed against his own. She could see her breasts bouncing, his thighs shaking, their mouths open as they called out to each other.

_"S... Senri...!"_

In the midst of her bouncing glory, the golden-haired Rima moaned and grabbed a fistful of her partner's hair. Senri Shiki gave a low and drawn-out groan, and in return began to pound into her faster. They became so crazed that Yuuki could smell their sex very strongly, and it caused a light tingling in the depths of her abdomen. Fascinated, Yuuki watched as they claimed each other, hands roaming anywhere and everywhere, and heard their moans of passion become steadily louder.

"_Senri_..._please_..."

Rima whispered hoarsely to Shiki as their bodies smacked against each other, sounding as though she were pleading. Yuuki did not have to wonder long however, because only moments later she could see the small, white fangs extending from Rima's rosy-red lips, and how she kept trying to turn her partner's head to the side.

Shiki had stopped moving and was attempting to grab hold of Rima's forceful hands. In their chorus of ragged breathing, he quietly admonished her.

"No, Rima...they're all going to smell us."

"I don't care..." she whispered throatily, and Yuuki was impressed at just how convincing Rima could be. She watched her begin to ride him again, softer and slower this time, letting herself moan lightly as he threw his head back. She could see the raw pleasure on Shiki's handsome face as he grasped her and, for the first time in her life, Yuuki felt jealousy towards another woman. How she longed to be in that place, hot and unrestrained in the arms of a man who cherished and desired her. She wanted desperately to feel what they were feeling now as they crashed into one another, breathed wildly against each other's necks, and finally, as Rima let out one long and drawn-out moan; she wanted desperately to feel their release.

As the young couple climaxed, Rima took her opportunity and plunged herself into Shiki's neck. This time he did not protest, instead, he seemed to greatly desire it. He tilted his head back and let out a noise that made Yuuki's stomach pool with warmth, and his body fell slack against the cushioned seat. For a few more moments Yuuki lingered, watching them drink from each other in turn, and in an instant her own throat became exceedingly dry. The smell of their blood together, drifting sweetly through the air, was much more powerful than their love, and in that moment Yuuki felt more parched than she had ever been... with the exception of the night at the hospital. Swallowing hard, she ran down the stairs, careful enough not to disturb the lovers, but careless enough to make noise as her feet hit the bottom. Picturing the small red tablets that rested on her bedside table, she made haste towards her bedroom and place of solace, feet barely touching the floor.

No sooner had she opened her bedroom door and flung herself inside, Yuuki realized that she was not alone. With a great sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, she watched the profile of Zero Kiryuu turn away from her balcony and step quietly into her room.

"_What_...are you doing in my bedroom?" she hissed at him menacingly, slightly shocked and feeling as though this couldn't have happened at a more vulnerable time.

"The Chairman has asked me to keep a very close eye on you." Zero said simply, as though that were reason enough. "I knocked on your door and waited...you didn't answer."

"So you just let yourself in?" she growled. "What if I was sleeping?"

"But you weren't."

He watched her with burning eyes, waiting for an answer to a question he needn't have asked, and for the first time since she had left the staircase Yuuki realized her fangs were extended. Plagued with thirst as she was, she could only imagine what she looked like to Zero... windswept, eyes wild and red, fangs protruding from her mouth like some kind of beast, and she willed him in her mind to disappear. Her breathing was harsh and uneven, and she could feel her muscles tensing involuntarily. It was a horribly familiar feeling, one she had to control...

The air could have been cut with a knife, for Zero had tensed in realization and turned away his head. She could also see the way his muscles contracted, and for a brief moment she was reminded of Shiki's gleaming body, tensing underneath the weight of his lover.

After another long silence, Zero walked towards her bedside and picked up a small, purple tin. It rattled lightly as he picked it up, allowing Yuuki to swallow the lump in her throat. After studying it intensely for a small moment, he took a step closer and held it out in his hand.

"Here..." he said quietly, but without the air of disgust she was expecting. "It looks like you need this."

For a moment all Yuuki could hear was the sound of her own thumping heart, and she moved even closer toward him. Her line of vision tunneled and all she could see were the details of his face, his strong and clenching jaw, the muscles beneath it, his reddening eyes and the way his lips parted slightly as she stepped directly in front of him.

For a moment neither said a word, and the silence stretched out like an everlasting desert. Yuuki didn't breathe, didn't think, didn't move except for stare at his face. She took note of how handsome he looked, with his sharp features and his silvery hair, and her eyes drifted further down until they rested upon his neck, where she could see his heart pounding beneath it. Her breathe came ragged again, and his voice sounded in her ears as he whispered her name.

_"Yuuki..."_

Not a moment later she flung herself against him, and was only mildly surprised when he did not protest. Wrapping her arms around his head and shoulders, she let out a long, breathy sigh and buried her fangs into his heated skin.


	14. Witnessed

_I had been hungry all the years;  
>My noon had come to dine;<br>I, trembling, drew the table near,  
>And touched the curious wine.<em>

_-Emily Dickinson_

_...-..._

_"I've become like a beast."_ thought Yuuki ,with guilt in her heart.

_... a beast and little else. _

Yet she drank from Zero's neck with force and with hunger, disregarding his occasional groan or curse. Like twisting her hands through warm silver curtains she buried them into his hair, keeping a strong predatorial grasp. It occurred to her just how vampiric she'd really become, because as she drank even deeper still, she realized that she wanted to drown in him... to take from him. His feelings and his fears, his thoughts and his sins, she tasted them on her tongue like salt and sugar. The medley of memories formed inside her with the similarity of dreams, swirling together into images and colors, and she allowed herself to fall. Many of the memories were blurred, yet some were very clear, and with a rush of heat she realized just how much he truly thought of her. Faces and voices carouseled in her mind, and she felt dizzy as she tried desperately to focus in. In the midst she saw his brother's smiling face, and with it a sort of desperation...yet there was also strength. Hate, yet also compassion. Fear, but also courage. Many of these were things were those that she knew of Zero, but as she dug her nails deeper into his shoulders, something new began to materialize out of the darkness of his mind.

It was a woman, one whose face and image were blurred more than the rest. There was an intoxicating scent coming from her skin, and a fleeting image of blooming oleanders. A very heavy emotion coated this memory, and much to Yuuki's horror she realized it was lust. The mysterious woman reached out her hands , and Yuuki was Zero as she rubbed them all over his skin, softly dragging her nails across his most sensitive areas. Pleasure invaded every cell in her body, and the heat was unbearable. The hand began to travel down, and when it reached its destination, she and Zero moaned.

The next thing Yuuki knew she was kneeling on her bedroom floor, gasping and panting as she gathered herself. With a pounding heart she looked up at Zero, who was shaking with a more blatant anger than she had ever yet to see.

"What the _hell_ were you trying to do to me?" Zero asked. He spoke quietly, but the menace in his voice raised the hair on her arms.

"I-I'm sorry." Yuuki whispered. She wiped at her mouth with her sleeve, and she realized her own hands were shaking.

"Trying to steal my memories! THAT'S WHAT BLOODSUCKERS DO! YOU FILTHY PUREBLOOD!"

There was a ringing silence in the room as Zero's words sunk into the floor. Though they did not hurt Yuuki as much as his last memory.

"_That woman_..." she whispered. " _You...you slept with her?_"

There was a short silence as Zero regarded her. His lips twitched slightly, yet his face was unreadable.

"Don't dig your teeth into my veins..." he said lowly as he looked away. "And you won't have to see the things that flow through them."

And with that he walked towards the door, and Yuuki's mind filled with numbness as she stared blankly at his shoes, which clacked past her kneeling form on the hardwood floor . She hung her head and closed her eyes, willing away the strange emotion that was bubbling into her throat. The tall figure in the doorway paused for a moment, gently touched the wooden frame... and was gone.

...-...

Yuuki's studies were emotionally draining. The changing times and tedious work were enough to make her miss the empty solitude of Kaname's home. Arithmetic was her biggest enemy. She had never been able to grasp the complicated formulas and lengthy equations. Things should be simple, she thought, and she should never need to know them even through immortality.

"Yuuki!"

Yuuki whipped around just in time to see her friend's arms flying around her head. Sayori was almost a head shorter than Yuuki, so she often had to jump up to reach her.

"Yori-chan!? What are you doing up this late?" Yuuki asked. It was almost two-thirty a.m., and night classes were only halfway though.

"Oh, I hardly ever sleep." said Yori with a wave of her hand, and for some reason this startled Yuuki. "But I knew you had class tonight, so I tried to meet you halfway across the common-grounds. Are you free right now? Pleassse say yes!"

Yuuki looked at her dearest friend with renewed eyes. Even after years of knowing her, she had mixed feelings about being with her alone, and these thoughts made her ashamed. Yet, were they unreasonable?

Sayori sensed her unease, and shot Yuuki an open look of hurt. Her honey-brown hair blew across her eyes in the breeze, and Yuuki realized just how beautiful she'd become. How long had it been since she'd really seen her friend?

"Let's go for a walk." she said. "No one should bother you while you're out here with me."

Yori gave a girlish squeal that reminded Yuuki of their youth. She remembered sleepovers and hushed giggles and realized it had only been a year or two since they had happened. If two years aged her this much, how would she survive eternity?

She and Yori walked the grounds for almost an hour. Cross Academy was more of a palace than a school, and there was a great deal of aesthetic value to the outside grounds. Yuuki's favorite place to be was the garden, because it was soft and peaceful and alive. They had just sat down on a bench by the Forsythia bushes when their conversation fell silent. Yuuki waited, sensing the start of an unfavorable subject. She prepared herself.

"Which night-class students are you closest to?

Yuuki looked at her abruptly, this was not the question she had expected.

"You know, other than..._him_, who are you friends with? I know you hold a high position and stuff, but who do you _really_ know?"

Yuuki chewed absently on her thumb as she pondered the question, a human habit that had yet to die. She thought of all the night-class students and her relations with them up until now, yet realized with a pang that there was little to say. When she was a human they had treated her with disregard, uncaring of her existence except when she interacted with Kaname. Yet when she was a vampire the roles reversed, their caring reaching catastrophic levels, though not for her own well-being. The only person whose came to mind was Aidou, for despite his rude and brash demeanor, he was always quick to offer her a kind smile when she needed one most.

"I suppose Hanubasa-san would be the closest, though I don't really know him all that well."

"I see...I thought you'd say that." Yori said quietly. "I see you with him a lot." She smiled lightly, but Yuuki couldn't help but notice the change in her demeanor. She turned away her head and sighed quietly as though she were thinking something sad, and realization sparked in Yuuki's mind like a fuse being blown.

"I think..." started Yuuki, choosing her words very carefully. "That the more you get to know someone, the more they're really there. I don't think it's the other way around, and I think that everyone needs that specific person. To be there."

Yori smiled and met Yuuki's eyes. The look in her own said that she understood, and that she knew she was as well. No more words needed to be said, and both were relieved.

"Who is your person?" she said after a long moment. "The one who is there?"

Yuuki felt a lump rise in her throat as she heard the question, and the heavy weight that stood behind it. She turned away from her friend's burning gaze.

"I don't know. It could be you, I guess."

_"Hmph"_ was all Yori said, but Yuuki could feel the tension lifting off of them. Though the conversation might continue, she could sense that the truth and seriousness of the question was being pushed aside... for now.

A church bell rang in the distance, and Yuuki realized with a start that she was late for her next class which, unfortunately for her, was Arithmetic.

"I'd better go." she said. "I can't afford to take another scolding . Besides, you should be asleep."

"It's alright." said Sayori dreamily. She gazed off in the direction of the church bells, looking wistfully calm, and in that moment Yuuki both loved and admired her. To live in such a hopeful world, that was something she could only wish for.

They left the garden abruptly and made haste towards the school. When it came time to part ways they hugged each other tightly, making promises and plans, though each of them knew they would be broken. Yuuki watched her friend walk on, her tousled hair bouncing gracefully, but before she got too far away, she turned around and spoke, her soft words carrying on the rough autumn wind.

"I watch you fly at night, you know...it's incredibly beautiful."

And with that she turned and ran towards the school with surprising speed, leaving Yuuki more shocked and exposed than she had ever felt.


	15. Hunt

_I have stood still and stopped my sound of feet _

_When far away an interrupted cry _

_Came over houses from another street, _

_But not to call me back or say good-bye; _

_And further still at an unearthly height,_

_O luminary clock against the sky,_

_Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. _

_I have been one acquainted with the night._

_- Robert Frost, "Acquainted with the Night"_

...-...

It was a very windy evening as Zero roamed through the streets of a nearby city, so much so that he and his taciturn partner, Kaito, had to use the lids of a trash disposal to keep the debris from their eyes. The neighborhood itself was a quiet one, and rather upscale in taste, though Zero could tell that their visit was not in vain. After his years as a hunter and the things he had seen, his mind and body had become acutely aware of approaching dangers. He breathed the sweetened air into his lungs, and his heart beat just a little bit faster.

They had been sent out by Yagari earlier that evening to catch a renowned vampire couple who had been preying on the locals... and their mission was to exterminate. Zero recalled the information that had been relayed to them; that the pair were very clever, and had been running what they referred to as "a business" for many years across the region. They called it this not only because they devoured their victims, but also because they used them to exploit money and goods. Their latest trick rang slightly of patriotism, for the male of the pair, whose true name was unknown, had taken to dressing himself as a military official, recruiting young boys from all around the city and devouring them at their place of hideout. The couple were known to be very wealthy and conspicuous, and though they had been sighted often by intelligence, they were somehow never found.

The two men rounded a corner and onto the town's main street, which by that time had already retired for the evening. Down the small road was an upscale clothing store, where strange-featured mannequins donned wigs and neon undergarments, and past that a white-shuddered newsstand, a teahouse, and a small sprinkling of restaurants that stayed open no later than supper. The only sign of commotion was a seedy pub at the end of the block, where a group of heavily made-up women giggled as the pair walked past. One of them, a tall redheaded woman, gave a low growl of approval as Zero roughly brushed past her. He didn't look back, though he heard Kaito's timed exhale of breath.

"Did you get a good look at her?" he whistled lowly. "Hm...I think that one liked you."

Zero said nothing and continued on. He had no interest in those women, in their obnoxious cloud of perfume and tight dresses, nor did take interest in many others. Often struggling with the idea of companionship, he had told himself from an early age that loneliness was not the worst thing that could happen, yet often his nights proved him otherwise. After all, who was the person occupying his dreams at every chance he had to close his eyes?

The pair came upon a small home at the edge of the town, where a sign swung lazily from the awning: "Nageru _[cast away]_ Antique Shoppe". A pale grey door marked the entrance, and as Zero stepped forward cautiously, he found it was unlocked. The inside of the store was quaint and humble, with large displays of furniture and knick-knacks covering most of the space, and several brass chandeliers hung low from the ceiling, casting the room in a faded amber glow. The men looked around warily, guards high as they examined random items. Zero saw nothing suspicious, though a tapestry at the far end of the room caught his eye. It was a magnificent golden cloth, with emerald green borders which were greatly frayed. Dozens of little figures ran parallel across its weft, and as Zero studied it closer, he realized that it was telling a story. Through the headache which had nagged at him for several days, he strained his lilac eyes on the small, woven pictures. There at the far right was the image of a young man, who was standing tall and proud as though he were in the prime of his life. Though in the picture to the left he was laying on the floor, knelt over by a willowy young woman, and Zero's heart jumped as he realized he was being bitten. He continued to read on, calloused fingers brushing gently over the cloth, and he followed the course of events. With a tightening chest he realized he already knew the rest of the tale. The man was now depicted as a beast, a gruesome creature, who was kneeling and devouring small, flailing children in all of the preceding images.

"Yur' readin' it the wrong way." said a voice, and both Zero and Kaito raised their weapons in response. A small, elderly man stood near the far corner of the room, where a semi-hidden door was present in the wall behind him, standing ajar.

"Who are you?" barked Kaito. "Announce yourself!"

The man gave a low, almost light-hearted chuckle as he stepped into the dim light. Zero watched him carefully. He was short and somewhat stocky, with speckled skin the color of watered-down milk. His eyes were very small and crinkled, and his bushy hair and beard were a fierce Irish-orange. Zero could tell he was a foreigner even before he heard the accent.

"Lerk!" the man said thickly. "You boys oughtta keep your 'eds! You just can't go wavin' guns around and expect a fair welcome! Now tell me who ya are and state your bus'ness!"

"Speak Japanese!" growled Kaito. "We don't understand..."

"What my friend here is saying..." Zero interrupted, in almost flawless English, while Kaito stood and gawked at his sudden language skills. "Is that we are looking for someone... who we believe owns this store. Can you tell us where they are hiding or anything that you know?"

"Now boy," continued the man, putting his hand up in the air for clearance, "I am the only owner of this place, a wee crabbin like myself. I am, with most certainty, no' the one ya seek. So if you would please, so to spaek... calm your 'eds."

Zero lowered his gun, and motioned Kaito to do the same. He stepped closer to the man, breathing in deeply his scent, and upon doing so found he smelled foul. It was as though he had not bathed in several weeks, and the severity of it made the hairs in Zero's sensitive noise recoil. It was something familiar, something he had been near before, but regardless of that, there was no mistaking it. The man before them was not a vampire.

"We are detectives." lied Zero, pulling his shoulders back slightly. "We received a tip that there was a dangerous criminal here, who has connections to your store. If you know something, and I think you do... now is the time to speak." He raised his gun again, pulling the safety off loudly.

"Now," said the man, and Zero picked up a note of anger in his voice. "I don' know what ta help ya with. But someone who got guts like you… I'll do what I can. Now if you're interested in buyin' summen, I'll cut ya the best deal I can afford."

"_Zero..._" whispered Kaito," I don't know what the two of you are saying, but I can tell it's going nowhere fast. He's a foreigner anyway...maybe the tip was bunk. The ones we're looking for are confirmed to be Japanese."

Zero was quiet, unsure what to make of the situation at hand. The man's accent was odd, and Zero couldn't quite shake the feeling that he understood what they were saying. He was here in Japan, after all. Everything about the old man was strange, and Zero's fingers twitched over his gun anxiously.

"_Besides_..." Kaito continued. "I know there are vampires in this town somewhere. I can definitely feel it."

The man smiled wanly at them as they talked, and he gestured towards the tapestry which had taken Zero's interest moments before.

"Now," said the man. "As I was sayin' before, ya were readin' it the wrong way." Zero watched as he walked over to the textile and laid his withered hand gently over the images, and it appeared to him as though he were having great trouble moving. He pointed to the image on the far left.

"This is where it starts" he said. "You're from here in the East, so ya were readin' it from the right ta left. But this 'ere cloth is from the European Middle Ages, so its read left ta right."

Zero examined it again as he continued on. Reading the tapestry from left to right was completely different, and it changed the entire story. It now depicted a gruesome vampire, preying on women and children with fierce brutality, then being bitten by another vampire, and suddenly the being appeared...human.

"It doesn't make sense that way." said Zero, now in Japanese, and Kaito watched him and the tapestry curiously. The man looked at them, seemingly figuring out what they were saying, and continued on in his broken accent.

"This tapestry 'ere tells a very old folk story, one that was told often durin' the dark ages, about a cursed vampire who was made back inter a human."

Zero said nothing, so he continued on.

"Aye, the vampire in question were a man once, bitten and cursed to fall inter madness. He wreaked havoc summet fierce on the townspeople, and they could do nettin to stop 'im. But one day he came upon a beautiful lass, who fell in love wit' him and turned him human again. She were a vampire too, ya see."

"So she gave her life for him." Zero nodded, remembering a somewhat familiar story he had heard. "I see..."

"Nay!" squealed the man, almost effeminately. "That's the brilliance of it! She was different, she was. She 'ad the power to turn vampires, who had been bitten, human again, and she di' not die herself."

Up until that moment, Zero had listened to the story with something like disinterest, yet there was now a white noise building in the back of his mind. If only something like that were true, he thought, if only it could be real. The idea sprouted in his thoughts like a forbidden seed of hope, until he forced his conscience to push it aside.

"Now it's just a folk tale, mind you, but it was quite a popular one back in the Eur'pean Ages. If ya like it, ya can have it, as long as ya promise ta leave, wit' no more trouble."

Kaito sighed loudly from behind them, his frustration apparent. "Zero...I'm tired of this. Let's leave."

Zero sighed too, and gazed sharply at the old man. He was feeble and strange... but he was human. He was not what they were looking for, and Zero sensed no others were amongst them.

"Alright..." he said, frowning. "Let's go."

They had just turned away from the man when Kaito said, "By the way Kiryuu, when the hell did you learn English?"

"I suppose I just picked it up." said Zero quietly, and a pair of dark scarlet eyes flashed at the back of his mind. "Amongst other things..."

The two men chattered quietly as they made their way out, determining just what ugly detail they could have missed. Just as they were about to exit from the dimly-lit store, Zero turned and thanked the man for his time, though he was no longer there.

"That's really weird!" Kaito said loudly. "Where did he get to so quickly?" His voice rang brightly with innocence, though in the low-cast shadows, Zero saw him nod once ... and they each grasped their weapons.

The two men examined the shop once more, but it was true that the man was gone. He had not only left with impossible speed, but also without so much as a footstep. Kaito walked closer towards the far corner, where the man had originally appeared.

"Where _did_ he go?" he asked again, this time to himself, and he peered around and shuffled furniture while Zero watched the door, then suddenly he fell quiet. Noticing how very still Kaito was standing, Zero walked over to him.

"What is it?"

"We have trouble." His partner said firmly, though Zero could just catch the note of fear in his voice. He took a step back and pointed behind a large wooden chest, where the old man lay on the ground... very much dead.

Zero felt cold chills run up his spine as he knelt down beside the corpse. Upon examining it, it looked as though the man had been dead for some time.

"_Something is very wrong here._" thought Zero.

"Can I help 'ye boys' with anything?" whispered a cold female voice. The two men whipped around wildly, guns drawn, but it was one second too late. A tall, red-headed woman was flinging herself towards them, fangs extended, and in an instant she had sunk them into the arm of Kaito, who yelled loudly and shot at the ceiling. One of the chandeliers crashed to the ground and made the dimly-lit room even darker than before. Zero jumped up and grabbed her by her hair when she whipped around to face him, blood dripping down her chin.

"So the hunter is also a vampire? You must be the one they speak of...the twin." She grinned evilly, and it was then that Zero realized she was the woman from the pub, the one who had growled at him as he walked by. "What a handsome body you have... I can't wait to try it on."

In a rush of fury, Zero pinned her to the floor and aimed his bloody Rose at her heart. He had just grasped the trigger when someone grabbed him by the neck and flung him into the wall with supreme strength. It was the man, her partner, and his dark glistening arms were now wrapped tightly around Kaito's neck. Zero aimed his gun at the female once more, but her body was already limp on the ground.

"What…?" he whispered in confusion, but that's when he saw it. Across the room, the old man's corpse was lifting off the ground. Eyes rolling, it spoke, and his previously European accent was replaced by Japanese speech.

_"Now that you've wasted so much of my time…" _it whispered. "_You're going to come with us."_ The corpse grinned, pallid skin stretching over its bloodless face, and for one brief moment Zero was paralyzed with fear and disgust. He felt a pair of inhumanly strong hands pull him away from the smiling figure and down a long set of stairs. He struggled hard with the man, who was tall and rather large, but found his strength to be outmatched greatly. Zero could hear Kaito right behind him, shouting and spitting obscenities at his attacker. Stealing the opportunity to glance back from his own, Zero realized that the corpse itself was carrying his partner, and his stomach turned sharply.

They were dragged into a dark room at the bottom of the stairs, where several pale bodies lay scattered across the stone floor. All of them were dead, eyes staring blankly into nothingness, and a cold realization dawned on him suddenly.

"You use them..." Zero growled. "You wear them. _That's_ how you hide. That's how you move around."

"Quiet, hunter!" hissed the corpse. "Should you pass your ridiculous judgment on us, when your hands are just as tainted as our own?" It dragged Kaito into the corner of the cellar and shackled him into an old stock, which sat in the midst of many other dangerous looking objects. It was strange watching the body walk, with long jerking movements, almost as if it were a puppet on strings, and Zero wondered bitterly how he hadn't suspected something before. The woman may have the skill to use the bodies of others, but it was apparent upon observation that the body was not her own.

"How'd you like my English?" it said mockingly, as she noticed him watching her. "I'll admit you surprised me there. I've been watching this old fool for a while now, since he had something I want. I guess I'm not as rusty as I thought."

The man apprehending Zero said nothing as she spoke, simply holding him down onto the ground with the strength of a wild boar. He breathed heavily against Zero's neck, bloodlust apparent, until the corpse looked their way sharply.

"Kyo!" It growled at the man, and suddenly it's body fell limp, landing with a sickening _smack _on the stone cellar floor. The woman, now in her true form, came flying down the stairs not a moment later, and in a heated blur of red hair and anger, she tackled the man to the floor.

"These two aren't just a quick meal!" she howled into his expressionless face. "You know what we have planned! Don't you dare try to devour him now!"

A low snort was heard from across the room, and all heads turned to Kaito, face turning towards them in his pillory. He smirked mockingly at the couple.

"What plans?" he sneered to the woman, her pale, angular face crashing down in anger. "Were you going to use our bodies to get into the Association? Never. You two fucks are completely graceless! They would've drowned you like rats the second you walked in the door!"

It happened in a instant. At one moment, Kaito was smirking and jeering their way, and the next, his body shuddered and hung limp in its stock, head lolling loosely to the side. Zero shouted his name and ran briskly towards him. Neither vampire stopped him as he did so, and this only confirmed Zero's fear as he grasped his partner's wrists. He felt no pulse there.

Body shaking in rage, Zero whirled around and aimed his Bloody Rose in for the kill-shot, yet the sight before him stopped his brain cells cold. The eyes of the man who had held him down were now burning an inhuman color, and his mouth was open in an almost shocked expression. However, Zero that knew this was not the case, for inside of his gaping mouth was a small, blinding ball of light, which twitched and burned wildly, as though it were a star about to burn away. The man stared ahead blindly, disturbingly, as though he were no longer aware of his surroundings. The sight of him was enough to instill fear in any heart.

"Judging by your amusing reaction," chuckled the woman. "Your impression is correct. The spirit of your friend, his very essence, is one moment away from being devoured. Give me your precious body, hunter, filled with the life of many purebloods, and I will grant you the gift of his soul, if only that."

A piercing white anger filled Zero, and he didn't allow himself to wince as thorn-laden vines ripped themselves from underneath his skin. He growled menacingly and pointed his gun at her.

_"Be careful..._" she hissed. "All he needs to do now...is swallow."

Zero stood and watched as the small ball of light swirled and twitched inside of the man's jaw. For just one fleeting moment, it seemed to reach out towards him, a small blue-ish tendril, wisping outwards from his rigid face.

At that moment, an ear-piercing scream tore through the air as Zero launched his thorny arm deep into the heart of the man. He gasped as he fell onto the floor, gray eyes no longer gleaming, and the small beam of light was nowhere to be seen. The screams came from the woman as she lunged for Zero's throat in fury... but he was ready for her, and his bullet hit its mark not a second too soon. She fell dead onto the floor in an instant, while the male writhed and wheezed. He reached for her as he gasped for air he could not claim.

_"Kiyohime..." _he choked, and his body gave one last jerk as it fell into ashes.

Zero acknowledged none of this, for once he had confirmed their deaths, he raced over to Kaito's side, whispering prayers he didn't know he'd had. His mind was white and his head pounded with blood as he examined him, and upon hearing him gasp for air, he whispered a silent _'thank you'_ and hung his head against his heart.

"What the fuck...was _that_?" Kaito sputtered loudly, and Zero was so relieved that he let himself laugh.

"I think that was rogue vampires at their worst." he said, glancing warily in their direction, now nothing but ash.

"Let's get out of here, now." Kaito said quietly, causing Zero to look him in the eyes. There was a strange emotion there, and he couldn't help but wonder if he'd been aware of what had happened. He wanted to know, but decided to ask another time, possibly when the sun was shining, and they weren't surrounded by death. Zero agreed and helped him out of his stock, before making his way up the stairs.

"Wait...!" Kaito yelled suddenly. "Let's bury the others first."

Zero turned and looked down at the old man, who now appeared harmless and kind. He wondered vaguely who he was, who he had been, and what he'd had that he'd gotten mixed up with two of the most frightening vampires Zero had yet to come across. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, mustering strength from an unknown place.

"Right." he said.

...-...

It was nearing sunrise as the pair made their way across the academy grounds. Halfway through their journey, Kaito had fallen weak, and Zero had supported him for most of the way. Kaito had protested this, but after nearly tumbling into a crowded street, his objections grew less forceful and eventually he was quiet. As they walked along the familiar moonlit path, Zero let go of Kaito momentarily to adjust the load on his shoulders.

"I don't know why you dragged that thing with." Kaito said. "Something like that has got to weigh at least twenty pounds."

Zero unfurled the tapestry and re-rolled it tightly, once again strapping it on his back for comfort. He had not only been intrigued by the old man's story, but upon realizing what the woman had said, figured it must have meant a lot to her too.

"I think it's what she came to that place for." he said, mostly to himself. "She must have really wanted to have it."

"Yea, well maybe she shouldn't have been such a psycho about it and just stole the damn thing."

Zero grunted in response, because they would probably never know just what had went on before they'd arrived. All he knew was that this old cloth had been very important to someone, and that was enough for him.

Slow and exhausted, they were almost at the school doors when they heard a soft noise from above. Upon glancing up, they noticed a tall figure on the roof, gazing down at them with a strange aura.

"Hey," said Kaito. "What's your Kuran girl doing up there?"

Zero's heart skipped a beat in his chest, so much so that he ignored the "your Kuran" comment and simply stared up at her... Yuuki... who stared right back.

_What _was_ she doing up there?_

She was standing, in what appeared to be pajamas and a lacy top, on the highest point of the roof, and something about the way she was holding herself told Zero that she had been up to no good, and was just caught in the act. He knew her all too well.

_Knew_ her...

"Whatever," Zero said roughly. "It's no concern of mine." Though he was fooling no one, and he stared at her for several long seconds until she finally turned away, disappearing quickly behind the night class turret.

"That was odd." Kaito said, and was about to crack a lewd joke when he noticed the look on Zero's face, so he said nothing.

"I'm too exhausted for this." said Zero quietly. "Let's get inside."

...-...

_**__Authors Note:__ Hello readers! I truly apologize for my slow updating:( I promise to finish this story and I'm sorry if you have to read it all over again to recall the plot. I plan on being much more timely in the future ;) Please review and thank you to all of you who already have! Your messages always make my day!**_


	16. Assurance

A large grandfather clock ticked rhythmically as a lone figure gazed out into the horizon. He watched a gaudy sunlight spill its warm golden rays over the eastern mountains, and for a moment wished that something like this would affect him. There had been a time when beautiful things, like the sunrise or the crashing sea, would stir emotions in his heart, yet now they only passed by him like sleeping hours, quick and without memory. He allowed himself a small sigh and tightened his hand around polished banister.

"What are you going to do...Kaname?"

Kaname was surprised by neither her presence nor by her lack of honorific. They had always addressed each other on a first name basis, and their relationship was mainly defined by a raw form of respect.

"Seiren..." he said softly, removing his hand and rubbing it idly. "When did you get back from your duties?"

"If you mean watching over Yuuki-sama, then I have just arrived back, though, forgive me, I have much more interest in the subject at hand then her current activities."

"The subject at hand has everything to do with Yuuki. I have explained this to you , have I not?"

"Yes... but not in detail. Are you really going to allow these things to happen? Sara Shirabuki is dangerous, and your sister is-"

"Please stop referring to her in that manner," said Kaname softly, though there was darkness in his tone as he turned to face the woman, whose beautiful face remained impassive. "I have never considered her as such. Though she is family, Yuuki was born to become my wife and my lover, but many things have changed since then..."

The two vampires stared at each other in a long moment of silence, in which many things were said without a single word spoken. The rhythm of the clock continued on.

"She's been testing her strengths in private." said Seiren finally, in her complanate voice that had always reminded Kaname of a steady wind. "Her ability to grow wings and use them is quite impressive...and also very rare."

Kaname felt a small feeling of pride fizzle inside of his chest. Of course his Yuuki was rare, she was irreplaceable to him, and that's what everything always came down to.

"Yes." he said lightly. "Just like her mother, she was born into a world of flight and beauty, and that is where she will remain. " He glanced at Seiren's face and noticed a sadness there, one he had seen only a time before. He turned away, gazing at the sunrise once again. "When the time is right, her full strength will be revealed, and I will do what I must. This is the way things are meant to be."

There was a long pause before she spoke, softly, a foreign whisper that caused his eyes to widen momentarily.

"_Kaname..._"

He turned to face her again, only this time he allowed himself to note the tenderness in her gaze. She let him see it for a moment and then tucked it away once more.

"There is a reason I have always stood behind your actions, and that reason is because I admire you."

Kaname smiled softly at her admission, as he had another time many years ago.

"Many people admire me, Seiren. Respect is something that I cannot run away from , due to my name, and all these years I have hid behind it simply because it suits my purposes."

Seiren allowed a gentle smile, tilting her head so that her face was hidden behind a curtain of sleek silver.

"It is not your name or your presence that I admire." she said. "It is your heart..." And with those words she turned away swiftly, gone as always in the blink of an eye. The lone figure smiled to himself and turned back towards the window, which was now full of streaming, golden light.

Maybe he had just needed to hear those words, because now the morning was slightly brighter.


	17. Post-Mortem

Several miles from the gates of Cross Academy, a small cottage stood in a thicker portion of the woods. It had once been owned by an elderly couple, who grew spices and herbs in their garden, and they would sell these spices to a nearby market for honest profit . However the building now stood in silence, quaint and threatening, and though the reclusive couple had several acquaintances in town, none of them had searched for long.

Sara Shirabuki plopped herself down into a plush pink reclining chair, which was broken-in and worn in all the right places. It had easily become her favorite seat in the house, and she rested her bare feet on the ottoman beside it, sighing in comfortability.

"Please..." she said. "Have a seat. You're making me uncomfortable just standing there."

The thin young man swallowed hard, body trembling like an autumn leaf as he positioned himself awkwardly into a small kitchen chair. As he watched her watch him, he was briefly reminded of a snake waiting to strike, still and poisonous.

"You're afraid of me, then?" she accused, twirling a curl of hair around her finger. "You shouldn't be, after all that I went through to bring you here."

The young man, whose real name was Noboru, felt a sickness in his stomach as he struggled to recall the previous nights. Most of it had been a haze of anguish, and she had bit him several more times as she'd dragged his haggard body through miles of foliage. His heart skipped another beat at the remembrance of her frightening strength, and he released a shaky breath.

"Do not forget that if it weren't for me, you'd be dead," she scolded. "And there'd be nothing left of you but an empty body and some unfavorable clothes. I even gave you my precious blood, and you are still not satisfied?"

_"Yes..."_ he thought idly, acids churning in his stomach. He remembered that too, an unbearable feeling of hunger, consuming him for nameless hours. _"No!"_ his thoughts shouted back, _"hunger didn't describe that at all_." It was as though the pit of stomach had been gnarled and empty, and a savage pain had made all movement impossible. He was blinded, screaming, shouting obscenities and praying for some sort of relief, and she had given it to him. He had yearned for something he didn't even know he'd needed, and this snakelike woman had provided for him, albeit somewhat forcefully.

"Tell me then," she continued on, breaking him out of his thoughts. "Would you have rather I'd left you there?"

At this, Sara's eyes bore into him with a wolfish intensity, waiting for his answer, but this went unnoticed by the boy as his vision glazed over. At that moment, as her question reached his ears, Noboru's entire life flashed before him. This had not happened the evening previously, when he had been dangling his own life from a gnarled tree, not before when a vicious creature had attacked him and drank his blood, nor had it happened through any of the nightmares which had preceded soon after. Now as he met her blackish-blue eyes, he saw everything at once, and he realized with a pang that as he'd been fighting for his life, he had actually been desperate to keep it. Being brought to death from life and back again had made him realize... his life was finally something precious.

Lost in these thoughts, Noboru shook his head slowly before he realized it.

The next thing he saw was Sara Shirabuki's wide, magnificent smile, and though her fangs were bared and his memory still fresh, it was beautiful enough to calm his nerves. For the first time in many months, he felt himself smile as well.

"I'm very glad." she crooned. "Now get some rest, darling. Classes start on Monday."

...-...

"_Hahaha!_ This is too good! He looks like an angry hen! All puffed up!"

Yuuki's laughter was boisterously loud as she rolled around in the grass. Yori sat beside her, also chortling, but it was her own drawing that they were holding, and she'd already had a good laugh in private.

"How long did it take you draw that anyway?" asked Yuuki, sitting up clumsily as she wiped her eye. "It's so exact, it's almost like you took a photograph!"

"Well," Yori mused. "Maybe about three days. I see him like this all the time though, so it's pretty much committed to memory."

The drawing in question was of Hanabusa Aidou, angrily shouting at a mysterious silhouette, which walked away from him as if unfazed. He was slightly cartoonish in nature, with his body bent over and arms raised over his head, and his mouth took up half of his face. When you added in his bloated cheeks, puffed out in disproportionate size, he really did resemble to Yuuki a clucking hen... or an angry blowfish. She broke into a fresh wave of giggles at the thought.

"Well I think you've captured him perfectly," she laughed, secretly relishing this chance to be silly. "I can practically hear him shouting obscenities at me. And I always knew you drew well, but this is really good...even for you!"

"Well it's been a while since you've seen them!" said Yori defensively. "People do get better, you know! And this one's not even serious! I have others-"

Yori's cheeks turned pink , but with a steady hand she opened her blue sketchbook to a different page, and Yuuki gasped in spite of herself.

"Is-is that me?" she whispered.

"Of course!" Yori bubbled. "I told you I've watched you practice! Do you know how lucky you are, Yuuki? Being able to fly is like some kind of fairy tale that's always in the back of people's minds, and you've pulled it off effortlessly! It's a blessing really, I don't understand why you try so hard to hide it."

But Yuuki said nothing in defense to her statement, for fear that her voice would quiver if she spoke. The sketch was perfect to say the least, each fine line and shadow drawn by an experienced hand, and Yuuki flushed at how much detail was given to the curve of her body. The paper's crisp surface depicted a woman in flight, wings stretched high, long hair wild, and her facial expression determined. She was radiant, and even though Yuuki resembled her, she did not recognize the woman in the picture as herself.

"It's absolutely beautiful," she breathed. "Though I think you've given me a little too much credit. I don't really... look like that."

It was Yori's turn to whisper. "Yes, you do. You're beautiful, Yuuki. Like... breath-taking beautiful."

Yuuki felt something stir in her chest, and when her friend's eyes wouldn't meet with hers, she realized it had been more of an admission than a compliment.

"So are you. " she said plainly. "Not just your face but your heart as well; your talent to make something as perfect as this drawing. But you are not a vampire. You have no special blood or supernatural traits to _make _you beautiful, or talented, but you still are. I think that makes you lovelier than any of us."

Yori turned away, averting her gaze to a group of giggling day-class girls. Yuuki saw her smile.

"You would say something like that, Yuuki." she sighed, and there was a silence.

"Let's get back inside." she said finally, breaking their shared daze. "It's starting to rain a little, and the headmaster will be wanting his yearly reviews." She grinned. "I've been purposely avoiding mine, I think he's gotten everyone but me, and now I can feel his eyes boring into me between every class. It's getting kind of annoying..."

Yuuki smiled. Headmaster Cross had specifically mentioned Yori's avoiding behavior, and had asked her mawkishly how Yuuki's dearest friend had come to hate him. He'd had tears welling in his eyes, and it was all she could do to roll her own. As his adoptive daughter, Yuuki was used to his maudlin behavior, but it was funny to see how others reacted.

"Yes... he does get that way, doesn't he? Just be sure to smile and call him father, and he'll forget all about that in a heartbeat. "

...-...

Later that evening, Yuuki was awoken by a frantic knocking at her door. Though the noise itself was soft, it seemed hurried and urgent, and Yuuki practically fell out of bed as she stumbled to answer.

_"Yuuki... please get up! I need your help!"_

Recognizing Yori's voice, she opened the door to find her standing there in a blue nightdress, honey-colored eyes wide and edgy.

"My notebook, Yuuki! I left it in the chairman's office earlier! I need you to go and get it. Please!"

Yuuki huffed, only because she hadn't had a decent sleep in days. They had been friends for a long time, so she knew it was alright to express herself. "Why can't you get it? Why do you need me?"

"What kind of question is that? Because you're the chairman's daughter and you have the key! I'm not just going to break into his office in the middle of the night! What if he caught me in there? I'd be mortified! At least if it's you, it won't matter!"

Yuuki contemplated for a moment why this was so important to her, and then realized that the notebook was more or less Yori's personal journal. Upon recalling the images in its pages Yuuki blanched, she couldn't let the headmaster see.

"All right." she resolved, gesturing inside her room. "Just wait here and I'll be back in a few minutes. It'll be awkward if he finds me in there, too... so I'll have to be quiet."

"Yay! Thank you, Yuuki! I'll wait right here."

Yuuki grabbed the key from its hiding place in her delicates drawer, and proceeded to pad her way across the moon dorm. She realized that wandering its hallways in secret had become quite a habit for her, and wondered for a moment if hiding her abilities was really worth it, or if it could stay that way for long.

_"No!"_ she thought. _"I already made the decision not to tell them. Not the Headmaster, not the night class, not Zero. I have to stick with it now..."_

Something inside of Yuuki warned her that it was not time for anyone to know how much her body was awakening, and the thought of it set off alarm bells in her gut. She already couldn't handle the pressure of being a pureblood, let alone her brother's sister, and the extra attention would be too much to bear. Though sometimes, in the middle of the night, she would experience a strange humming in her body that grew progressively more violent the longer she sat still, and its energy was disorienting. On these nights she couldn't sleep, and as she cradled her pillow she wished she had someone with whom to confide. These were the times she missed Kaname the most, because only he and he alone would understand.

She had felt it that night too, in the hospital, and the feeling had been so strong its power had almost blinded her.

_"It's strange though,"_ she thought. _"I felt it after I drank from him, and not before..."_

She closed her eyes tightly. "_Don't think about that now!"" _But her mind flashed back to Aidou's words.

_" 'It was just your instinct...' "_

Shaking her head to clear her increasingly anxious thoughts, she realized with a start that she was standing in front of the headmaster's door. Taking in a breath, she turned the key and stepped inside of the dark, cluttered office. The headmaster was not a messy person, but his abundance of books and antique furniture made even a large space hard to keep clear. Side-stepping around globes and small tables, she reached his desk and began ruffling through large stacks of papers.

"Oh, there you are." she whispered triumphantly, as her foot happened upon a small blue sketchbook. It lay unseen under the chair. "That must mean he didn't see you." She picked it up and rifled gently through its contents, curiosity winning over, and Yori's eloquent, looping print stared boldly from every page. There were some poems and short stories, which she glanced at but did not read, and there were countless sketches of things and people she knew, though with heated cheeks, she realized that many were of Aidou.

"Wow..." Yuuki breathed , studying a particular sketch of the noble at a windowsill, where he gazed out as though in thought. "She makes even a steam-head like you look reserved!" And with that note , she closed the book and slipped it in her oversized pajama pocket.

Just as she was leaving, she caught a glimpse of a photo wedged between two stacks of papers, and finding it odd that the headmaster would have such things, proceeded to pull it out from its place.

Yuuki felt an ice-cold, watery feeling trickle down her spine, and her eyes dampened in terror. She had found the headmaster's victims file, and the latest one was hers.

Fighting the impulse to panic, she forced herself to take in every detail of the photo, and realized it must have been taken shortly after she had found him that night... when Zero had come. She once again re-lived the terror of finding him there, and was reminded of what she had done.

Hands trembling slightly, she read the tiny scrawl that was written under the man's photo. The handwriting was rough and unfamiliar, and she realized it must be Yagari's.

_[Hank McLoughlin, aged 32, birthplace United States_

_Victim found dead at 23:37, time of death estimated at 21:00. Okaido Preserve, three miles southeast of campus. Two puncture wounds in neck, left appendage torn, abdomen severely lacerated. Crime scene indicates a struggle, victim brought against his will and bitten shortly after death. Bleeding gums indicate fangs were grown post-mortem. Pureblood affiliation is obvious. ]_

She stopped reading, confused.

_"Bitten shortly after death...?"_

At that moment, the door creaked open, and Yuuki forgot everything to wonder how he always found her at the most inopportune moments. She threw the file onto the desk in haste.

"Hi..." she said weakly, and immediately cursed herself for not having something better to say. He simply stared back at her.

"What are you doing in here, Yuuki?" Zero asked. He sounded tired, and she was momentarily thrown off by the gentle use of her name.

"I came in here to retrieve something precious of Yori's." she stammered, deciding it was foolish to lie. "She asked me to come and get it before morning." She held up the book in order to prove herself, then hastily stuffed in back into her pocket.

"I see," he said. "And did Wakaba ask you to look at the association's criminal files, too?" Yuuki watched him raise his one eyebrow in the impatient way he always did, waiting for her to confess her wrongs like she did when they were children.

"Well I saw it on his desk!" Yuuki snapped defensively. "I definitely have the right to know these kind of things! If it wasn't for me stumbling across them all the time, no one would tell me anything! And besides, I'm the one that-"

She stopped, heart faltering. He raised his eyebrows further.

"-found him...before you got there."

Zero said nothing for a moment, eyes passive, and then they glanced at the file she'd been holding.

"That guy we found was bitten by a pureblood, but the weird thing is that he was bitten after he was dead." He looked away suddenly, eyes glazing over like an overcast sky. "There's no pleasure in drinking someone's blood after their heart has stopped beating, that's why victims are always living."

"Well how do you know that?" Yuuki asked slowly, and her heart pounded so loudly now that she could taste its vibration on her tongue. "How can you know he was bitten after, and not before?"

Zero picked up the file and touched his fingers to the photo. "You start to get to know things after a while. The body's internal organs act differently for humans then they do for vampires, even when they die. After examining his body carefully, Yagari was certain that he was bitten afterwards. He was-" Zero paused, deep in thought, and Yuuki watched him gnaw a little at the inside of his cheek. "He was human when he died like this."

Yuuki felt a knot tighten in her stomach. How could what he was saying be true? _She_ had bitten this man weeks ago.

There was silence as she looked down at the carpet, clenching and unclenching her fists. She gave a start when Zero took a step toward her.

"You're acting even weirder than before," he said tonelessly. "Everyone is noticing it. You sneak around at night, and you're avoiding me."

Yuuki forced her face to remain impassive, but inside she yelled at herself for being so foolish. How much had everyone noticed?

"Why are you avoiding me, Yuuki?" he asked again, and she was surprised that this out of all the questions was the one he'd chosen. She looked at his face and was momentarily startled by his reddening eyes.

_"Because you've been with a woman," _she thought._ "And I know nothing about it. Who was she? Do I know her? Because that hurts me. Because I'm this, because I can never take it back. Because you truly hate me..."_

"I-I'm not avoiding you, Zero. It's just that we've got very different lives now. We're not..."

She paused, wincing slightly at the way her statement sounded, and fell silent as she was met by his icy stare.

"You're lying..." he growled suddenly, and Yuuki shouted out as he grasped her wrists and pinned her body against the desk with his own, sending papers falling across the floor.

"Just tell me, Yuuki..." he said lowly, hot breath tickling her ear as she struggled not to notice. "Are you feeling hungry already? Is it because _he's_ not here to satisfy you that you're like this?"

Yuuki felt a pang of hurt at his words, but with his warm body so near her own she couldn't fully register their intended blow. Instead she was preoccupied by his harsh breathing, and his closeness.

"Zero...why are you doing this?" she whispered into his shoulder, voice coming out much feebler than she'd hoped. He said nothing, and she noticed then the large, ugly veins that were protruding from his neck, the way that he swallowed as though his throat were dry. His breath grew more ragged at her question, and as his body tensed, she touched her hand to his hair.

"Zero-"

"What are you trying to hide?" he interrupted harshly, grip tightening around her. "Are you trying to protect him with something? Are you going to meet him when you sneak out at night?"

"NO!" she howled in disgust, and pushed him off of her with all her strength. He fell to the floor in surprise, and she was momentarily shocked by the look in his eyes...like that of a wild dog. She noticed the way his body trembled and for a fleeting second, felt fear, as though she was in one of the nightmares that plagued her dreams.

_"But I am..."_ she thought wildly._ "Because Zero is falling."_

_"_I've had enough..." she said suddenly and, eyes blinding with tears, made a mad dash for the headmaster's letter opener. She sliced open her arm with reckless haste and immediately put her mouth to the wound. After nursing it for a small moment, she grabbed a stunned Zero by his collar and crashed her lips against his.

She had expected more of a fight. She had braced herself for a "level E" breakdown, for his furiousness, but instead she was met with warm and soft lips... lips that opened up for her and the blood she carried within them. Long after it was gone from her mouth, he continued to move his lips against hers.

_"Zero..."_


End file.
